Evangels erupt in fourth to down JBU women

Mid-America Christian’s women had a fourth quarter to remember on Thursday night at John Brown.

The Evangels outscored the Golden Eagles 30-15 in the final quarter to get the final edge in a 72-59 victory on Senior Night inside Bill George Arena.

Mid-America Christian entered the quarter trailing 44-42. The Evangels took the lead for good, 49-48, on a 3-pointer from Aneli Thomsen and quickly extended their lead to a comfortable double-digit mark.

Even MACU coach Hannah Moeller was impressed when she saw the production of her team in the fourth quarter.

“I just thought overall defensively we were a lot more locked in during the second half,” she said. “I thought we had a lot more sense of urgency about us and it showed in the fourth. We struggled to hit some shots in the first half and kind of just said ‘Hey, stay with it and eventually we will make enough of them.’ But John Brown did a phenomenal job. They made it really tough to score. They made it tough for us to play in the full court, and that’s kind of where we want to live.”

Thomsen hit another 3-pointer in the fourth to put MACU up 54-48.

Tarrah Stephens cut it to 54-50 with a basket but the Evangels then went on a 6-0 run to go up 60-50. Thomsen hit a basket inside and Whitney Outon and Jaci Littell each hit a pair of free throws.

Maddie Altman scored inside for JBU to make it 60-52 but Littell answered and Kyleigh Leverich hit a 3-pointer for a 65-52 lead. JBU could go no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

“They executed their stuff,” said JBU coach Jeff Soderquist. “We had a couple of minor breakdowns but, besides that, they hit shots. Again we didn’t hit shots. But I don’t know if we would have scored 30 anyways in the quarter, but we needed to get some more stops than we did.”

With the loss and Wayland Baptist’s victory at the buzzer against Science and Arts, JBU fell into fifth place in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Natalie Smith scored 18 points to lead JBU, while Lisa Vanoverberghe had 10 and Stephens nine points and 15 rebounds.

“We guarded. I thought we guarded the fool out of them in the first half and even a little bit in the third quarter,” Soderquist said. “I wanted to come out and fight for this game, and I thought we fought for it. It really just comes down to that fourth quarter.”

Moeller gave praise to John Brown’s players.

“There’s nobody outside of our team that I would rather see win than that group of kids from John Brown,” Moeller said. “Credit to them.”

Thomsen led MACU with 20 points, while Outon and Leverich each had 13 and Shy Christopher 11.

“I will say this, number 24 (Thomsen) for us finished with 20 points,” Moeller said. “She is a kid that has never needed to have that type of a role, and in our last four to five games has just absolutely carried us. I’m just really, really proud of her.”

JOHN BROWN 92, OKLAHOMA CITY 71

The Golden Eagles had one of their most prolific shooting nights in program history in a rout of the Stars on Tuesday, Feb. 14, inside Bill George Arena.

“We needed that,” said JBU coach Jeff Soderquist.

John Brown hit a seasonhigh 20 3-pointers, coming just one trey short of tying the single-game program record that was set in 2018 against Panhandle State.

John Brown began the game hitting 11 of 14 from behind the 3-point line and was 12 of 16 (75 percent) in the first half. JBU cooled off to shoot 8 of 16 (50 percent) from long range in the second half to finish 20 of 32 overall (62.5 percent).

“I don’t know about shooting 62 percent but if we can shoot up in the 40s from three and having Tarrah (Stephens) inside, I think going into postseason we can be a pretty good team,” Soderquist said. “You’ve seen my teams over the years from the Final Fours to the Baily (Cameron) group, that’s kind of been our MO is either scoring around the basket or hitting threes. If we’re hitting on both of those, I think it can be pretty good.”

Just eight days removed from hitting nine 3-pointers at Southwestern Assemblies of God on Feb. 6, Natalie Smith hit eight of 10 from behind the 3-point line against Oklahoma City and led JBU with 24 points. Tarrah Stephens hit both of her 3-pointers and scored 16 points, while Emily Sanders hit three of four from long range and had 15 points and Leah Anderson 10 points off the bench. Maddie Altman added nine points on three treys.

JBU led 24-16 after the first quarter and 50-36 at halftime before taking a 70-55 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Annilla Dawn land Amaya Gordon each had 19 points to lead Oklahoma City.

With the win, JBU completed the season sweep of the Stars for the first time since the 1995-96 season.

JOHN BROWN 63, SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN 48

The Golden Eagles led by as many as 26 points and rode senior Tarrah Stephen’s sixth double-double in a 63-48 wire-to-wire road win at Southwestern Christian (Okla.) on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 18) inside PickensSpringer Gymnasium.

The Golden Eagles (20-8, 14-8 Sooner Athletic) didn’t receive the help it needed with Wayland Baptist (Texas) trouncing SAC regular season champion Texas Wesleyan in their respective season finale, relegating John Brown to a road contest in next Thursday’s (Feb. 23) tournament quarterfinals. JBU will take on the league’s hottest team – Wayland Baptist – after the teams split the season series, each winning on the road.

Back in Bethany, JBU held the Southwestern Christian (14-13, 12-10) without a field goal for the first 6:13 of the contest and built a 17-8 lead after the first quarter. Juniors Elise Cone, Natalie Smith and sophomore Emily Sanders each provided triples before the lead grew even larger in the second period.

A 10-2 John Brown run ballooned the margin to 17 midway through the quarter as the hosts struggled on offense. The visitors’ lead stuck at 15 at the intermission as the JBU defense held Southwestern Christian to a mere 6-of26 shooting (23 percent) from the field through 20 minutes.

JBU, meanwhile, shot a blistering 52 percent (11 of 21) and out-rebounded SCU by a 22-7 margin.

Stephens scored seven of John Brown’s 13 points in another large 13-2 run to open the second half, keeping the Eagles’ deficit at or over 20 for the majority of the half. Finally, a late 9-2 run from the hosts returned the margin to 15.

For the 11th time this season, Stephens burned past the 20-point mark, scoring 9 of 13 from the floor to finish the afternoon with 25 points. She added 12 rebounds – five on the offensive boards – and recorded a pair of thefts. Graduate student Maddie Altman was the only other Golden Eagle in doublefigure scoring, as she contributed 10 points on an efficient 5 of 6 shooting mark from the floor. She also added five helpers.

The visitors cooled off a little in the second half, but still ended the matchup hitting 48 percent (21-of-44) from the floor and converted 14 of 17 at the charity stripe. The Golden Eagles continued its rebounding advantage and finished by doubling up SCU 39-19 on the glass.

JBU’s defense limited Southwestern Christian to just 14 points in the paint.

Tresha Yager scored 12 for the Eagles and MJ Case added 10 points. Despite the duo’s output, the Eagles’ starters shot just 13 for 42 (31 percent) from the floor.

UP NEXT

John Brown travels to Wayland Baptist at 6 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.