JBU women power past Xavier in opening round
JBU 61, XAVIER (LA.) 50
SILOAM SPRINGS — The John Brown women’s basketball team has been known over the years to be one of the more prolific three-point shooting squads in all of NAIA, often leading the country in threes made and attempted.
But with Xavier (La.) playing a stingy man-to-man defense, the Golden Eagles took a different direction Friday night in the opening round of the NAIA National Tournament.
JBU hit 54.7% (23 of 42) of its shots from inside the threepoint line and didn’t rely on the outside shot to power past Xavier 61-50 at Bill George Arena.
“Whoever knew in all the years we’d be winning a big game like this and only hitting two threes?” JBU Coach Jeff Soderquist said. “But that’s what this team has done all year.”
John Brown (29-3) extended its winning streak to a program record 27 consecutive games.
“I mean we were all really excited,” said graduate student Tarrah Stephens, who led JBU with 21 points and six rebounds. “But we came in the locker room and had a little nerves and a little excitement, then we said it’s just a basketball game. We’ve been playing basketball all year. We know how to do this, so let’s get out there and do what we know how to do.”
The No. 3 seed Golden Eagles, champions of the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season and conference tournament, advance to play No. 6 seed Indiana Tech, which defeated St. Thomas (Fla.) in the opening round Friday, at 4 p.m. today.
The winner of the game today will advance to the Round of 16 site in Sioux City, Iowa.
JBU hit only 2 of 11 from behind the three-point line with both makes coming from Natalie Smith, including one late in the first half that gave JBU a 34-28 halftime lead.
Xavier cut the lead to two early in the second half and trailed by four when Stephens converted an off-balance shot and was fouled with 3:12 remaining in the third. Stephens hit the free throw for a 45-38 lead.
“I was trying to get that play,” said Stephens, who was the Sooner Athletic Conference’s Player of the Year. “It just really livens up our team when you do something like that.”
Stephens scored again before the end of the quarter for a 48-38 lead going into the the fourth.
JBU opened the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run and led by as many as 16 in the second half. Smith made a reverse layup and Stephens and Bella Irlenborn both scored inside. Smith’s drove to her left for a layup that put JBU ahead 5640.
Soderquist said his team did a good job of adapting its offense to what the defense gave it.
“I think our conference prepares us for different styles of play,” Soderquist said. “We’ve seen everything different this year, and it’s made us better. Because I think when it comes to tournament time, we’ve seen different styles of play. We’ve seen this style of play. We’ll probably see a totally different style of play (today), but I think our conference has prepared us for this.”
John Brown finished 25 of 53 (47.2%) from the field. Smith had 12 points, while Emily Sanders had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
Defensively, JBU held Xavier to just 21 of 63 (33%) from the field and only 2 of 16 from behind the three-point line.
“Our defense did a good job again,” Soderquist said. “Our defense has been the thing that’s won games for us. Our defense again came up big.”
Taylor Dewitt led the Gold Nuggets (25-7) with 12 points, while Mary Wilkins had 10.
“Really I thought we guarded them extremely well,” Xavier Coach Bo Browder said. “I think where we messed up at, we didn’t get too many second shots. I thought we stopped them, but they got too many second shots. Anytime you play against a good team, you can’t give them two shots. That’s one thing they did against us, we didn’t get a lot of second shots. it was one and done for us.”
INDIANA TECH 69, ST. THOMAS (FLA.) 39
The Warriors outscored the Bobcats 3618 over the middle two quarters to take control and roll to a win in the late opening round game.
Indiana Tech (29-3) led 18-15 after the first quarter and 33-25 at halftime. The Warriors took a 54-33 going into the fourth.
Bethany Worm scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds off the bench to lead the Warriors, while Taylor Covington had 12 and Korryn Smith and Juliana Burris each had 11.
St. Thomas (21-9), which was the last team to beat John Brown on Nov. 17 in Lakeland, Fla., was led by Paige McDonald, who scored 12 points off the bench.