By: Ross Struss/Print; Sam Gentry/Video; Chloe Ekberg/Photos

After winning 11 of the last 12 national championships only one team from the Great Plains Athletic Conference was left. Morningside College fell to the Wildcats of Indiana Wesleyan by a score of 65-64 in the Monday evening semifinal at Tyson Event Center in Sioux City, Iowa.

The Mustangs did not start so hot in this game. Trailing with a score of 15-1, just over five minutes into the game.

Indiana Wesleyan, however, shot a blazing 87 percent through that same period of time while Morningside only managed 14 percent hitting one of seven shots.

“I thought our start was really big because it took the crowd out of it. It took their student section out of it and it got quiet. And I think we gained some confidence then and started to play with more flow,” said Indiana Wesleyan Head Coach Steve Brooks.

Mid-way through the first half things hadn’t really improved too much as the Mustangs still trailed by 14 points.

A shot clock violation at the 7:32 mark by the Wildcats gave Morningside an opportunity to cut into the lead, but Morningside’s, Jordan Wollenburg was only able to hit one of those shots. After a quick steal and a three-point basket Indiana Wesleyan head coach, Steve Brooks was forced to call a timeout as the Mustangs closed within 10.

Morningside managed 16 points off the bench in the first half while the Bobcat reserves only managed five. The half closed out with Indiana Wesleyan leading by a score of 39-30. Paige Smith of Indiana Wesleyan led the teams in scoring with 17 points while Ashlynn Muhl led Morningside with seven points.

“For the most part, what we did was we didn’t let them run, they only got one three in transition and we knew coming out we had to stuff them in the half court,” Brooks said.

The second half began pretty even as both teams were scoring baskets. Morningside closed within nine on a basket by Bobbi McManaman with just under 15 minutes left in the game. Allison Bachman nailed a three-pointer at the 13:05 mark cutting the lead to six forcing a timeout by the Bobcats who had to this point a relatively quiet second half.

“We knew they had a run in them, they are just too good and they’ve done it in so many other games. And we knew with five minutes left this was still anyone’s game,” said Brooks.

The mustangs improved their shooting percentage to 44 percent over their offensive push to start the second half.

Ashlynn Muhl still led the Mustangs in scoring at this point with nine while Paige Smith of Indiana Wesleyan still led all scorers with 21 points.

The atmosphere in the second half ramped up considerably also as the hometown Mustangs brought an extremely large contingency to the Tyson Events Center for the semi-final game and the team fed off them as they hit they 10 minute mark in the game. However at that point the Bobcats were still going toe to toe and actually regained their lead at 12 points just under the nine minute mark.

With four minutes left in the game Morning side was still being the proverbial thorn in Indiana Wesleyan’s backside as the Mustangs had clawed their way back into the game only down eight 59-51.

After the ball rolled out of bounds on the ensuing Bobcat possession McManaman of Morningside hit a three-pointer pulling the Mustangs within five at the 3:11 mark. Another Turnover by Indiana Wesleyan this time a shot clock violation only continued to give the Mustangs more and more opportunities.

A charge at the 2:12 mark on Morningside fired up the crowed. And after a missed basket head coach Steve Brooks called another timeout to try and stem the bleeding being caused by the Bobcat’s errors. With forty four seconds left in the game the Mustangs scored a quick two to pull within three points before Emma Stahl made a free throw for the bobcats extending the lead back to four. The second shot was missed and rebounded by Morningside but was turned over on the ensuing possession.

In the end it was the Bobcats who came away with the victory by a score of 65-64. This marks the first time in five years that no team from the Great Plains Athletic Conference has played for the title. Indiana Wesleyan will play Davenport University of Michigan tomorrow night at six o’clock for the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Title.

Karli Harris, a senior for the Davenport Panthers, drives toward the inner court against the Northwestern Red Raiders in their semi-final matchup Monday. Photo by Laura Bernero.

By: Allen Hamill/Print; Laura Bernero/Photos

In the first semi-final game, a pair of No. 2 seeds, Northwestern and Davenport met up to see who would move on to the championship game. This semi-final game was a rematch of the 2011 championship game where the Red Raiders won by a final of 88-83. The outcome of this game differed from that game, with Davenport advancing to the championship by a final score of 74-68.

The two teams played an evenly matched first few minutes when an 8-2 run by Davenport forced Northwestern Head Coach, Chris Yaw to call a timeout with just over 14 minutes left in the first half and the score at 12-9 in favor of the Panthers. The two teams continued to keep the game close throughout the first half with five ties and five lead changes in the first 20 minutes of action. The score was all tied up at 32 at halftime after Northwestern’s guard, Alli Dunkelberger drained a three-pointer with 12 seconds left before the buzzer.

“Whoever was going to beat De Jong has to stay on top and not ever go to the basket,” said Mike Williams, Davenport head coach. “The second thing we did was just stay in front of her.”

12 turnovers by the Red Raiders allowed Davenport to keep up as the Panthers were out-shot 50% to 33% in the first half. The Panthers held Northwestern’s, Kendra De Jong to just six points on three of eight shooting, but Dunkelberger picked up some of the slack as she scored 10 points. Davenport guard, Karli Harris led the Panthers in the first half with 13 points.

“We put in so much hard work since the end last year when we got upset, to come back and really prove to our selves that we belong out here with all the other teams,” said Harris.

Davenport slowly started to build up a lead in the second half as they eclipsed their largest lead up to that point as Davenport Panther, Leah Sevcik drained a three-pointer with 12:02 left in the game to give the Panthers a 50-44 advantage.

After getting up by as many as 11, Northwestern went on a 6-0 run to put the score at 59-54 with just over seven minutes to play. The Red Raiders continued to work their way even closer pulling within two at 65-63 with 2:11 left to play as Dunkelberger nailed a three-pointer.

With 90 seconds left, Harris stole the ball, went for the layup and got the hoop and the harm. With the free-throw the Panthers pulled it back to 68-63, but De Jong’s layup at the other end pulled it back to within a possession.

A foul and a pair of free throws by Davenport guard, Kayla Gross put the game at 70-65. Losing possession of the ball, Northwestern was forced to foul and the Panthers put away the game. Even though Dunkelberger tried to keep Northwestern in the game by hitting another three with 15 seconds left, it was not enough as the Panthers of Davenport closed out with a 74-68 win.

Morningside Mustang Leann Osten (15) tries to grab the ball from Bethel during the NAIA DII Women’s National Basketball Tournament. Osten made two points for the Mustangs throughout the game. Chloe Ekberg/HC Media

By: Maggie Meisinger/Print, Allen Hamil/Audio, Chloe Ekberg/Photos

After grasping a quick lead against Bethel, Morningside claimed a victory in the Quarterfinals of the 2013 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship Tournament. The Mustangs directed by Jamie Sale, head coach, will advance to the Semifinals winning 71-60.

After destroying Webber International 92-43 in Round one and defeating College of Idaho 69-47 Morningside found themselves tipping off against Bethel College. Meanwhile the Lady Pilots led by head coach, Jody Martinez, defeated Valley City State79-63 and upset Roosevelt 69-55, in order to make their way to the court for the final time this season.

Blazing a lead within the first five minutes Morningside looked to be unstoppable but only led by 11 at the half. Morningside proved to be tough competition, never giving up their lead in the first 20 minutes with the scoreboard at 32-23 at the break.

Bobbi McManaman, senior guard, and Jessica Tietz, freshman center led Morningside with points at the half with 6 each. For Bethel, Katy Stuppy, senior guard and Georgia Boisse senior forward led scoring with seven points each.

As the second half commenced Bethel showed no surrender, making a game of it by narrowing the gap to two points with 12 minutes left on the clock. That didn’t settle well with Morningside who decided to show Bethel what winning meant, stealing the show and taking home the W by 11 points.

Sale spoke after the game of Bethels run, saying, “There is no way we are going to keep them down the whole game and we just had to make sure we didn’t panic when they made their run and make a run back at them.”

Both teams stepped it up in the second half, the Mustangs completed 39 shots and Bethel added 37 to their score in the second half.

Morningside will tip off against No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan Monday evening at 8.

“We know Indiana Wesleyan is going to be a great game, I mean they’re so well coached, they’re probably the best defensive team in this tournament and we know we’re going to have to play great to beat them,” said Sale.

Clair Ray takes control of the ball and takes it to the hoop. Sarah Mindrup/HC Media

By Dan Miller/Print, Sarah Mindrup/Photos, and Melissa Ninemire/Video

The quarterfinals of the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship has been full of physical, high scores and close match-ups. The Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats skated their way through the tournament to this round and had to outlast the Briar Cliff Chargers to advance to the semifinal round with a win of 69-57.

Briar Cliff got the tip-off at the beginning of the first half, but made only one statement through the rest of the half. The Chargers only scored four of their baskets. Through the remainder of the first half, Indiana Wesleyan took advantage of the Chargers ball-handling miscues and scored efficiently in the paint. The Wildcats scored 18 points in the paint, led by #41 Paige Smith, who had 12 points of her own. Briar Cliff shot just 21 percent on the court and had eight points in the paint, with the rest of their points coming from free throws. The Chargers scored just fifteen points in the first half thanks to a last-second field goal by #3 Clair Ray.

“Indiana Wesleyan is a good team, solid and didn’t make many mistakes,” said Mike Power, Briar Cliff head coach. “We talked before the game started; it was going to be a game like the opposite bowl. What they did was completely opposite of what we did, they wanted to slow things down and we wanted to speed things up and whoever won the tempo would win the game and I thought they did a great job.”

In the second half the home court Briar Cliff fan base became alive when the Chargers came out and scored nine unanswered points, which put them just a field goal behind Indiana Wesleyan. The rest of the half became a slug match with Briar Cliff taking their first lead of the game just after ten minutes into the half, their first lead since their attempt 35 seconds into the game.

With both defenses nearly identical in steals, turnovers and team fouls, the two teams relied on scoring with free throws. Briar Cliff took full advantage of their high percentage scoring team when it came to free throws, scoring on 22 out of 29 attempts. The more the Wildcats fouled #24 Slone Masters the more she added to her total point count by scoring 12 of her 17 attempted free throws.

The Chargers bench that only scored one point and two assists in the first half began to click as a team offensively in the second half to score a total of 26 with 7 assists. The effort from the Chargers as well as the electrifying energy from the arena seemed to die down as the Wildcat lead increased. The Wildcats took as much advantage as Briar Cliff with free throws by scoring 72.4 percent. The Chargers could not handle #41 Paige Smith, who out-did anyone on the court with 25 points and 12 rebounds.

“Her [Smith] and Claire [Ray] both are the spiritual leaders of this team,” said Steve Brooks, Indiana Wesleyan head coach. “There is a major difference for us and people won’t understand it, they think this is the Christian version of athletics but our purpose behind this is to take the gifts and abilities God has given us and give them back to him. Nobody exemplifies that better than our two seniors.”

Indiana Wesleyan will advance to their third final four in school history. The top-seeded Wildcats will play the winner of the Morningside and Bethel game on Monday at 8 p.m.

College of Idaho’s Felicity Jones has six tattoos, including a tribute to her family, the names of her parents, and an homage to basketball. Photos by Liz McCue (left and right) and Laura Bernero (center).

Players display passions on the court and through tattoos

By Laura Bernero

Kia Frazier, a 5-foot, 4-inch sophomore on the Davenport Panther roster, has many stories to tell.

On the court, she is a feisty defenseman who contributed to the Panther’s victory over Eastern Oregon University in the quarterfinal round of the NAIA DII Women’s National Championship Saturday. But off the court, and everywhere she goes, she carries a story on her shoulder.

It takes the form of a 4-inch-wide, black tattoo.

“My grandma died of cancer in May of last year. And there was a man that was really close to me–he was like a father to me–and he died of cancer as well. So I thought it’d be cool to get a cancer ribbon,” Frazier said of the ribbon and embellishments that form the tattoo on her left shoulder blade.

Frazier, and dozens of other players at this year’s tournament, sport tattoos that are visible on their shoulders, wrists, or just above their socks. The NAIA permits them. Players are not required to cover them up when they play. So the women wave their colors proudly, and communicate their passions in an artistic, nonverbal way.

“I like tattoos because they are a way for me to express the things that mean the most to me,” said Felicity Jones, a senior at College of Idaho.

The Lady Yotes got knocked out of this year’s tournament after a physical battle against the Morningside Mustangs Friday night, falling to the Mustangs 69-47. The loss did not flatten Jones’ spirit, however. She was calm and composed as she reflected on the team’s season and their tournament run. At the end of her day, it’s about the love of the game.

Jones has six tattoos total, including a colored, 7-inch wide collage on her shoulder that displays the birth flowers of each member of her immediate family–mom, dad, grandma, sister, brother and two nephews. Connecting the colored flowers is a rosary, which is a testament to the family’s Catholic beliefs.

“My grandmother has been very intentional about passing her faith on to us. Family and faith is really important to me and my tattoo shows that,” Jones said.

One of Jones’ most prominent tattoos depicts a baby holding a basketball, accompanied by the words “born to ball.” She  also has the names of her parents tattooed on her wrists. Jones plans to keep her body ink streak going, getting as many as she can “before my mom stops me,” she said.

Frazier said that tattoos run in her family, and that many of her teammates got them for family or faith reasons as well.

“My brother has my name tattooed on his arm. And I’d like to get the names of my family members tattooed someday too,” she said.

Between passes and lay-ups and the buzz of tournament action this weekend, fans may glimpse stories like those of Frazier and Jones. Subtle tributes to family members, heroes, or even hobbies. Images large and small. Quotes and verses.

The tattoos are as versatile as the players themselves.

“I like that I can communicate to others what is important to me. They don’t even have to ask, they can just see the tattoos. They tell the whole story,” Jones said.

And Frazier agreed: “I think tattoos do tell stories, and I have a lot of stories to tell.”

Ali Dunkelberger, right, and Jenelle Wilson,left, both try to gain control of the ball during the second half of their quarterfinal match-up. Northwestern defeated St. Francis 87-77 and will advance the quarterfinals and face Davenport Monday at 6 p.m. Photo by Caitlin Hein/HC Media

By: Nikki Sherrill/Print; McKenzie Wedel/Video; Caitlin Hein/Photos; Ross Struss/Audio

After No. 1 seed Eastern Oregon fell in the first quarterfinal game of the division two national tournament Saturday, No. 1 seed Saint Francis was hoping to have different luck in their matchup against the three-time defending champions, Northwestern College. However, the Red Raiders had other ideas and eventually knocked down the Mountaineers 87 to 77.

Both teams had relatively easy second-round wins Friday, with Northwestern beating No. 3 Concordia 92-60, and Saint Francis handling No. 5 Saint Xavier 82-69. The Red Raiders of Northwestern were led by Kendra De Jong who had 20 points in the second-round matchup and the Cougars were led by Morgan Stuut who secured 13 points and 6 rebounds. Both teams needed strong performances from their leaders, as well as positive bench production to advance in the quarterfinals today.

The Lady Cougars began the game with a 11-1 run, forcing Northwestern coach Chris Yaw to take an early timeout. Saint Francis’ head coach Gary Andrews had to take a timeout of his own when his team started to lose their lead. Northwestern’s shooters started to warm up going 38 percent from the field and 4 of 6 from long range in the first half.

The Cougars lead grew even smaller when the Red Raiders’ Alli Dunkelberger started to heat up and dropped in 11 points in the first half and a three at the 5:30 mark to give the Raiders their first lead, 26-24. The first half remained an even game, with the score leading into the locker rooms tied up at 36-36.

“We needed to stay aggressive, I didn’t think we were shooting horrible shots, we may have been trying to score too many points each possession,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Yaw.

Brooke Ridley lead Saint Francis the first half with 11 points and 7 rebounds. The Cougars bench outscored the Wildcats 22-14 and also converted steals into points with 9.

The second half started out differently than the first, with Saint Francis taking an early timeout after an 11-4 run from the Red Raiders. After that, the game was back and forth. Neither team was able to grab a lead bigger than 4 points. At the 8:21 mark, the intensity grew as a charge call against De Jong turned into a block against Saint Francis, which caused Gary Andrews to get called for a technical. De Jong received  four free throws, made all of them, and gave the Red Raiders a 59-56 lead.

“We are not a super deep team, we got tired and if we could have gotten some calls our way, we could have been in it more but we needed to knock down more open shots,” said Gary Andrews, Saint Francis head coach.

The game seemed to be getting out of hand for the Cougars when the Red Raiders were able to pull away to a 72-61 lead with four minutes left. This lead was too much for the Cougars to come back from as they lost control of the Red Raiders and won the game 87 to 77.

“We found ourselves in a great battle until the very end. I’m excited about the heart in that first half they showed. To come out in the second half and be the aggressor was great. You can absolutely defend how aggressive you are going to the board and we kept competing and kept fighting,” Yaw said.

Brooke Ridley scored the most points for Saint Francis with 22 and Karen Hutson stepped up with 22 points for the Red Raiders.

With the win, Northwestern is well on their way to their fourth national championship in as many years. The Red Raiders will take on No. 2 seeded Davenport, who took out No. 1 Eastern Oregon (62-60) earlier in the day. The matchup will be Monday at 6 p.m. at the Tyson Events Center.

“Monday will come when Monday comes and we are just going to celebrate today,” Yaw said.

Davenport University junior Kendra Cook watches the ball at the tip-off of the game against the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers, the opening game in the elite eight on Saturday afternoon. Liz McCue/HC Media

No. 2 Davenport defeated No. 1 Eastern Oregon 62-60 to advance to the semifinals of the 2013 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Tournament.

Oregon beat Davenport 79-62 in the second round on Friday. Dominating Cardinal Stritch 62-39 Friday, Davenport found themselves in the quarterfinals tipping off against Oregon.

The the lead alternated between teams in the first half, mostly staying within a 5-point difference.  At the half, the Mountaineers headed to the locker room up by seven, with 39-32 on the board.

Senior guard, Brooke Randall carried her team in points during the first half completing 18 shots on the net. Randall is leading scorer for Oregon, claiming a 15.1 points-per-game average and was unable to complete a shot in the second half to add to her total.

Davenport’s leading scorer, senior guard Karlie Harris closed the half with two points, both of which were free throws. Junior center, Kendra Cook led scoring for the Panthers with only eight points at the half.

Head coach for Davenport Mike Williams said he wasn’t worried about Karlie’s off game during the first half.

“She just wants to win so bad,” Williams said. “The second half she just let the game come to her and she was much better.”

Kelsea Hurliman, senior guard for Eastern Oregon, was a key player, scoring 23 points for the game, eight of which were completed in the first half. Davenport’s freshman forward Tiesha Stokes ended the game with 15 points as her team’s score leader.

A quick 10-point lead early in the second half for Eastern Oregon, had fans cheering like they were breaking away for the win. But Davenport narrowed the gap, bringing the score back within one point midway through the half. Davenport took gained a 3-point lead with five minutes left to play.

With eight seconds left on the clock, Davenport clenched their lead with Oregon down by two. Randall attempted a 3-point shot to steal the game but was unable to meet the net, ending their season.

“We had a tough time putting points on the board, but I couldn’t be more proud of my team,” said Eastern Oregon’s head coach, Anji Weissenfluh. “They fought and they left it all on the court.”

Davenport will compete in the semifinals Monday at 6 p.m. against Northwestern or St. Francis, who play each this afternoon at 3 p.m.

Indiana Wesleyan Wildcat, Taylor Goshert (2) gets blocked by Grand View Viking Shelbie Beatty during the NAIA Women’s National Basketball Championship. Goshert scored two points for the Wildcats in the first half. Chloe Ekberg/HC Media

By: Maggie Meisinger/Print, Colton Spearman/Video, Liz McCue/Photo, Allen Hamil/Audio

No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan defeats No. 5 Grand View (Iowa) in the final game of round two at the 2013 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship Tournament. The final score was 27-49.

Indiana Wesleyan advanced to the second round of Nationals Thursday, after destroying Point Park 61-31. Grand View upset No. 4 Purdue Calumet 58-44 Thursday to proceed in the tournament.

Indiana Wesleyan, brought here by head coach Steve Brooks, is 31-3 overall this season. 2013 marks their 11^th appearance in the tournament, claiming a first place victory in 2007. Senior forward, Paige Smith, leads her team in rebounds (217) and scoring (532).

Grand View, looking to earn their first National title during their sixth visit to the tournament has a 4-1 first round record. Morgan Hammer, senior center averages 15 points a game, leading her team in scoring.

The score remained low throughout the entire first half as both teams battled it out to stay ahead. As the Viking and the Wildcats left to the locker rooms each team completed six field goals and three free throws tying them up at 15 points each.

When asked to talk about the offense the fans saw tonight from the Wildcats, Brooks replied saying “Very little, there wasn’t much offense tonight.”

Indiana Wesleyan began breaking away half way through the second half gaining a seven-point lead. During the second half, Wesleyans guards, junior Taylor Goshert, freshman Carlee Corttell and senior Claire Ray introduced the net to the only three pointers it would see in the game. Holding on to their lead, the Wildcats claimed the win by an overwhelming 22 points and the National Tournament claimed another victim.

Wesleyan is set to tip off against Briar Cliff in the Quarterfinals tomorrow evening at six.

Chelsie Trask (2) fights through the Lady Yotes defense in Morningside’s second-round game against College of Idaho Friday night at the Tyson Event Center. Photo by Laura Bernero. 

By Dan Miller/Print, /Photos, Melissa Ninemire/Video, and Allen Hamil/Audio

Through the day the number-one seeded teams have taken care of business, and Morningside College did the same tonight against the fifth-seeded College of Idaho. The teams picked as number one seeds in their respective area of the bracket are chosen due to their dominant overall regular season record. The second round of the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament was expected to be a competitive physical round with close match-up after close match-up, but the Morningside Mustangs were the first top-ranked team to struggle in the round against the Yotes.

The first half started with what seemed to be an offensive onslaught from the Mustangs, who poured 96 points on Webber International in the first round but it wasn’t the Mustangs’ defense holding the Yotes to just one field goal at the start of the game. The College of Idaho was successful in sinking only 9 of their 29 attempts in the first half.

The Mustangs were able to hold onto an 11-point lead to end the half. Idaho was able to close the gap in score by forcing 11 turnovers, 4 blocks and five steals. #12 Felicity Jones of Idaho led her team in scoring so that the Yotes could scrap up twenty points to possibly turn this matchup into a game in the second half.

“I think we had more of a sense of urgency than we did in the first,” said Jones. “When it came down to the second half it finally just hit us that we had to start playing the way we play by get steals and quick buckets and gets stops on defense and to just have a sense of urgency.”

In the second half Idaho looked like a team determined to silence the Mustangs who were pumped up by an arena full of Sioux City fans equipped with their own student section and cheerleaders. Jones proved to be the leading player on the court when she was in the game because of her hustle and her ability to score and snatch rebounds from the paint. She led all rebounders (10) and her team in scoring (15).

Idaho came close to taking the lead in the second half when they came within four points to tying the game.

“College of Idaho played very well defensively and did some things that gave us problems,” said Morningside head coach Jamie Sale. “I told our team, in the years we’ve won the national championship there is always that game or two where the shots aren’t falling and you have to find a different way to win and I thought that we did a good job of defending them and not giving them too many second half shots and that is what won the game for us.”

The Mustangs won 69-47 and will advance to the final eight for the fourth time in six years. Morningside will play Bethel College tomorrow night at 8 p.m.

Emily Walker, who scored 25 of the College the Ozarks’ 67 points, making her the top scorer for the team, runs past a Briar Cliff defender on Friday night’s round two game. Photo by Caitlin Hein/HC Media

By: Nikki Sherrill/Print; McKenzie Wedel/Video; Caitlin Hein/Photos; Ross Struss/Audio

No. 2 seed College of the Ozarks (MO) and No. 3 seed Briar Cliff (IA) both brought their fan sections to their second round matchup in the 2013 NAIA Women’s Division II National Basketball Tournament, raising the noise in the Tyson Events Center. However, only the Briar Cliff fans were happy after their Chargers eliminated the Wildcats 80 to 67.

Briar Cliff easily took down Siena Heights in the first round 94-77 while the Ozarks narrowly escaped an overtime game against Milligan 84-76. The Ozarks were led in their first round game by senior Morgan Smith who outscored all players with 40 points.

“We hit the shots and our defense was pretty solid, especially on Smith. Holding Smith to 12 points was really a team effort,” Briar Cliff head coach Mike Power said.

Ozarks looked to heat Smith up early to help give them the lead, but Briar Cliff was able to keep her cool, only allowing her to 4 first half points. However, the shooting and rebounding the Ozarks Wildcat’s were able to develop helped them have just a little bit more control of the game than Briar Cliff. The Wildcats went 43% from the field and brought in 26 rebounds, but turned the ball over 17 times. The Chargers lacked from the field only shooting 26%, but picked it up from long range making four three pointers. Summer Gordan from Briar Cliff led the team in rebounds with 3, but Kenzie Lauffer of the Ozarks led all players with 6 rebounds. The largest lead in the first half went to Ozarks who were able to stretch the game with a 9 point lead half way through the half. Briar Cliff only led once by a small margin of three points. The first half concluded with a 28-23 Ozarks lead heading into the locker rooms.

“We were not the same team in the first half that we were yesterday and we had a come to Jesus moment in the locker room,” Power said.

Briar Cliff came out into the second half ready to play, outscoring Ozarks 15-9 in the first five minutes. When the Wildcats would start to get closer, the Chargers found ways to score which helped their field goal percentage to 36 percent in the game. The bench stepped up for the Chargers to, outscoring the Wildcat bench 35 to 6. It seemed like everything Briar Cliff would put up, went in or sent them to the free throw line. Turnovers hit Ozarks by losing the ball 24 in the game compared to Briar Cliff’s 14. With under 10 minutes left, Briar Cliff had pulled out to their largest lead yet of 10, going ahead 55-45. However, the 24 fouls that the Chargers committed helped the Wildcats at the line, going 30 for 33.  The tables turned even more in Briar Cliff’s favor when Ozarks Smith fouled out with only 12 points, helping the energy raise in the Tyson. In the end, the Chargers prevailed for another day to live in the tournament.

“Second half was awesome, they really outplayed us bad, they had 57 points. We are better defensively than that. The first half we played was not good enough. Too many fouls and not enough rebounding,” Ozarks head coach George Wilson said.

The leading scorer of the game comes from Ozark’s Walker who finished with 25 points and Morgan Smith was the leading rebounder with 10.

“They realized this is the national tournament and if you don’t play with a little fire in your belly, you go home. We really got in the flow second half and got energy which helped the tide change quite a bit for us,” Power said.

This win landed Briar Cliff a spot in the quarterfinals on Saturday against the winner of No. 5 seed Grand View and No. 1 seed Indiana Wesleyan who will play later tonight. This is Briar Cliff’s third appearance in the last four years in the tournament quarterfinals.

“It’s so cliché but this time of the year, you are who you are and that’s all we can be,” Power said.