Drovers stun John Brown women
■ USAO rallied from a 15-point hole in the second half to clip the Golden Eagles.
John Brown’s women have enjoyed one of the best basketball seasons in program history in 2016-17, and the Golden Eagles are hoping that their resume will be enough to land them a spot in the NAIA National Tournament later this month.
JBU blew a 15-point second half lead in front of a large home crowd Tuesday and was eliminated in the first round of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament with a 67-62 loss to Science and Arts at Bill George Arena.
The Golden Eagles trailed by 11 points early before storming back to take a double-digit lead of their own early in the second half.
The same offensive futility that plagued JBU in the first quarter reared its ugly head again in the end of the third and beginning of the fourth as the Drovers rallied to win.
JBU head coach Jeff Soderquist felt like Science and Arts won most of the hustle plays on Tuesday night, which helped the Drovers make the plays to win.
No better example of that came in the final minutes when JBU was unable to corral a loose ball and the Drovers got a 3-pointer from Dierra Ely with the shot clock winding down to take a 6562 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“I thought USAO earned it,” Soderquist said. “The thing I kept preaching in the first half and at halftime was loose balls, and it just came down to the last play where we’re on the floor for a loose ball, and we don’t even come up with a jump ball. They kick it around, and (Ely) throws it in to hit a three.”
JBU turned the ball over on its next possession after Ely’s 3-pointer, and the Golden Eagles fouled Lauren Hart with 14.6 seconds left. Hart hit both free throws to set the final margin and secure the upset win for Science and Arts, which advanced to Friday’s semifinals game against Wayland Baptist in Oklahoma City.
“One thing we told them is, ‘Embrace the moment,’” USAO coach Darrick Matthews said. “I mean it’s postseason. Enjoy this. There’s a lot of teams that want to be here right now, and that’s not here. I thought we did a great job of not letting the crowd affect us and just kind of feeding off our own energy.”
Ely was a difference maker for USAO in the second half, scoring 17 of her game-high 19 points. She also pulled down 10 rebounds.
“(Ely) just came out with the mentality that she’s not ready to go home,” Matthews said. “I guess she wants to continue to play, and that’s what we want her to do.”
John Brown’s Luize Skrastina hit a 3-pointer to open the game much to the delight of the large crowd in attendance at Bill George Arena, but the Golden Eagles couldn’t score on their next 15 possessions. USAO went on a 14-0 run in that stretch to take a 14-3 lead.
The Drovers (12-15) led 16-8 after the first quarter, but John Brown settled down and found its offensive rhythm in the second quarter, where it outscored USAO 27-10 to take a 35-26 halftime lead.
Soderquist said he was concerned the Golden Eagles might have been a little too amped up because of the big crowd, which was announced at 741 fans.
“I was worried about that. It was a great crowd,” he said. “I wish we could duplicate this more and more every game. It was a great crowd, and they were jacked and all that. But we settled down and the second quarter, I think it was 27-10, and we came out at half and hit some shots, and got up right there.”
Skrastina and Kodee Powell hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the third quarter as JBU opened up its biggest lead of the game 41-26, but from there the Drovers slowly whittled away the Golden Eagles’ advantage.
USAO cut the lead to 55-51 at the end of the third quarter and then went on a 11-2 run to take a 62-57 lead in the fourth after eight straight points from Ely and a 3-pointer from Rebecca Worthy, who added 17 points.
Powell knocked down a trey in the corner to make it 62-60 and a driving basket by Baily Cameron tied the game with 1:14 remaining.
Ely gave the Drovers the lead for good on the very next possession.
“Too many costly turnovers and mistakes, missed opportunities,” Soderquist said. “We would get a stop or a loose ball, and they would just come up with something. You’ve got to give (USAO) credit. I thought they played really well.”
Powell led JBU with 14 points, while Cameron and Jana Schammel each had 13. The Golden Eagles hit 22 of 64 from the field and 12 of 32 from behind the 3-point line. USAO outscored JBU 39-19 in the paint, 16-6 on second chance points and won the turnover battle 15-11.
John Brown, now 22-8 and ranked No. 16 in the NAIA Division I, must wait till later this week when the national tournament field is announced. The tournament runs March 15-21 in Billings, Mont.
JBU has been ranked much of the season and finished tied for second with Wayland Baptist in the Sooner Athletic Conference final standings with a 14-4 record.
“I think we’re there,” Soderquist said. “We’ll have some time to kind of work on some things. We’ll take some time off and rest, but we’ll not take too much time off. We’ve got to get back to the flow and get some things cooking for us that we had going. We were all cooking right there. We’ve got to get back to that.”