Third quarter proves effective for John Brown women
All John Brown’s women needed to do to defeat Southwestern Christian was change baskets Thursday night.
The Golden Eagles almost doubled their first-half scoring with a 30-point third quarter and went on to post a 77-61 victory during Sooner Athletic Conference basketball action in Bill George Arena.
John Brown (14-8, 8-5) went on a 17-4 run to pull away after Eliora Johnson’s bucket to start the second half cut the Golden Eagles’ 31-28 halftime lead to a single point. Jana Schammel, who had only two points in the first half, scored seven points during the early run, including a bucket that gave the Golden Eagles their first double-digit lead, 42-32, with 6 minutes, 52 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We changed up our defense a little bit and added a little threequarter court trap,” John Brown coach Jeff Soderquist said. “We weren’t getting steals, but one of the things it did was get them out of rhythm and make them take shots they weren’t comfortable taking in their offense.”
John Brown eventually outscored Southwestern Christian (8-11, 4-9) 30-14 in the fourth quarter, with much of the points coming Golden Eagles players would go one-on-one with their defender. Jordan Martin of Bentonville ended the third quarter with five straight points and made it a 61-42 game for John Brown’s biggest lead, and Southwestern Christian didn’t get any closer than 11 again.
The Golden Eagles, the national NAIA leaders in 3-pointers made with 224 and 3-point shots per game (11.2 average) heading into Thursday’s contest, still hit 9 of 20 from beyond the arc, including 3-for-4 from Baily Cameron. John Brown, however, took advantage of its ability to have several players go one-onone inside for buckets on several occasions.
“In the second quarter, when we were stuck on 15 points for a while, we weren’t getting the ball inside,” Soderquist said. “In the third quarter, we did a better job running our offense and getting the ball inside. Even our 3-pointers came from getting the ball in, then going back outside.
“We get a lot of one-onones because we lead the nation in every 3-point category. We’ve got to learn to go in there one-one-one because other teams are staying out there on our shooters, and we did a good job with that.”
Cameron, whose 3-pointer in the final minute of the first half gave the Golden Eagles their halftime lead, finished with a team-high 23 points, followed by Schammel with 14 and Kimmy Deines with 11. Carley Frymire had 20 points for Southwestern Christian, while Johnson added 16.
“We’ve been struggling for the past two weeks,” Soderquist said. “In all my years of coaching I think you have to have three players score in double figures every night. It doesn’t have to be the same kids, but at least three.
“We’ve struggled at that and been relying on Baily too much. When we’re successful, we have two or three players in double figures.”
John Brown, which played a nonconference exhibition Saturday at Arkansas-Fort Smith, returns to league play Thursday at Mid-America Christian, which is one game ahead of the fifth-place Golden Eagles in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings.
John Brown 77, Southwestern Christian 61
SW Christian 13 15 14 19 — 61 John Brown 15 16 30 16 — 77 SW Christian (8-11, 4-9): Frymire 20, Johnson 16, Janz 7, Tully 6, Vestal 5, Morley 3, Richardson 2, Judkins 2. John Brown (14-8, 8-5): Cameron 23, Schammel 14, Deines 11, Martin 7, Orpo 6, Fergen 5, Williams 4, Teague 4, Skrastina 3.