USAO exacts revenge to end JBU’s season
Top-seeded Drovers use big second quarter to take command against Golden Eagles in SAC semifinals.
Coach Darrick Matthews wanted to avoid a repeat performance during his return to Bill George Arena on Friday.
His top-seeded University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma squad delivered with a 72-62 victory against fifth-seeded John Brown University to advance to Saturday’s Sooner Athletic Conference championship game against Oklahoma City. Results were not avaible at presstime.
The Drovers (27-4) avenged a 70-60 loss against the Golden Eagles on Feb. 10. Matthews was ejected after getting tagged with back-to-back technical fouls after he questioned why a JBU campus safety officer came onto the court to prevent him from arguing with an official during a timeout.
Matthews, who said he sent an apology letter to JBU afterward, wanted to put the incident and his team’s subpar performance from that night in the rearview mirror.
“We had a lot of extra motivation on our end coming out,” said Matthews, who was honored as the SAC’s Coach of the Year prior to Friday’s tipoff. “We thought if we didn’t focus on that other stuff and get down on ourselves, then the outcome would be different and be in our favor this time and I’m happy that it was.
“We felt like we didn’t do a very good job of giving the crowd a show, so we came out saying, ‘Let’s give them a good show,’ and that’s what we did.”
John Brown (19-11) used an 11-4 run, capped off by Ally Teague’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, to take a 20-13 lead at the end of the first quarter. But the Drovers silenced the raucous crowd of 596 by scoring the next 11 points. They finished the second quarter with a 24-6 advantage to take command with a 37-26 halftime lead.
Matthews said adding a few wrinkles to his team’s zone press defense was the difference and resulted in a 14-3 turnover advantage in the first half.
“We ended up throwing a fullcourt trap at them, just to kind of slow them down,” Matthews said. “They do a nice job of getting the ball in quick and getting the ball down court. We actually implemented that just recently because we knew we had John Brown coming up and we needed to slow them down.”
JBU coach Jeff Soderquist said his team didn’t make the necessary adjustments quickly enough against the press and also were dominated inside.
USAO (Chickasha, Okla.) scored 20 points off turnovers and 46 points in the paint, including 28 in the first half.
“When we’ve struggled against good teams this year, we usually had one quarter that just killed us,” Soderquist said. “The turnovers and the points in the paint were the difference. I’m not sure how many of those were in the second quarter, but it seemed like that’s when they got a lot.
“Our offense never sustained anything in the second quarter, so there was the big difference in the scoring where if we could have kept it at 24-18 instead of 24-6, we would have been OK.”
Siloam Springs native Baily Cameron scored eight of her game-high 24 points to lead JBU’s late rally attempt. The Golden Eagles got as close as 63-56 on a 3-pointer by Taylor Fergen with two minutes, 28 seconds remaining, but it ended up being the team’s final field goal of the season.
“We were pressing and kind of got some momentum, but they did a nice job of adjusting,” Soderquist said. “I think teams sometimes have a hard time guarding us man-to-man and with their press, they were trying to slow us down and slow down our transition because we like to get the ball up and down the floor, and that hurt us with our scoring.
“Then they would go to kind of a matchup zone and we never did a good job of really adjusting to that. The second half, we did attack it a bit better.”
Soderquist said it was a disappointing end to the careers of seniors Kimmy Deines, Courtney Fine, Jana Schammel, Luize Skrastina and Rosa Orpo. However, he believes the foundation for a stronger finish next season is there with the return of Cameron, the team’s top scorer, and others key players like Teague, Fergen, Sara Williams, Jordan Martin, Karina Chandra and Preslea Reece and among others. Soderquist said his team has signed three prospects, including Alma 5-foot-10 guard Sierra Bailey, and is still actively recruiting for two more spots in this class.
“We expect them all to come back improved, and we’ll need some others to step up and keep getting better,” Soderquist said. “And when you bring in a big class like we’re going to bring in, I think we’re going to look a lot different and we still need to make some headway in recruiting.”
Oklahoma City 104, Wayland Baptist 71
A 15-0 run in the first quarter allowed Oklahoma City to take command and they never trailed again en route to 35-point victory. It was the first time the Stars (27-5) eclipsed the 100-point mark this season.
Daniela Galindo, who was recognized as the SAC Player of the Year prior to tipoff, finished with a game-high 29 points to lead four Stars in double figures. Taylor LaCour and Alexis Hill each had 17 points and NaShyla Hammonds chipped in 15.
OCU shot 50.7 percent from the field while limiting Wayland Baptist (Plainview, Texas) to 39.7 percent shooting, including 17.6 percent from 3-point range. The Flying Queens (24-6) also placed four players in double figures led by Jada Riley with 18.
Men’s semifinals
Southwestern Assemblies of God 89, Texas Weselyan 79
The fourth-seeded Lions (23-9) rallied from an early eight-point deficit to upset the top-seeded Rams (2210). SAGU advanced to Saturday’s championship game against Wayland Baptist. Results were not available at presstime.
Joshua Swearingin scored 24 points off the bench for SAGU (Waxahachie, Texas). He was 9 of 13 from the field and grabbed six rebounds to help the Lions outrebound Texas Wesleyan 48-40.
The Rams (Fort Worth, Texas) trailed 51-39 at the half. They trimmed the margin to 81-75 on a 3-pointer by Rob Thomas with 3:35 remaining, but couldn’t get enough defensive stops ot complete the comeback. They were led by Ryan Harris, who led the way with 21 points.
Wayland Baptist 78, Oklahoma City 75
The Stars led by as many as 10 points in the second half, but found themselves fighting to rally from behind in the closing minutes. They cut the deficit to one point twice in the final 13 seconds, including a 3-pointer by Samuel Williamson, but the Pioneers (23-8) sank four free throws to escape with the victory.
Wayland Baptist’s JJ Culver led all scorers with 24 points. Ridell Camidge and William Robinson, who came off the bench, poured in 14 points apiece for the Stars (23-8), which still can earn an at-large bid to the NAIA Division-I tournament when pairings are released on March 7.