SHAWNEE – Southern Nazarene relied on its defense, Hannah Giddey and Lauryn Reither in its 60-45 Great American Conference Tournament semifinal victory over Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday at Firelake Arena.
OBU's season came to an end with a 17-13 record, tying for the most wins in the D2 era.
Madison Chambers once again led the Bison with 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting. After that,
Jaedyn Getman contributed eight points while
Jill Leslie added seven points and eight boards. As a team, though, the green and gold were able to hit just 33 percent from the field and 2-of-10 from deep.
SNU got off to hot start courtesy of Reither. She drained four 3-pointers in the opening period which helped the Crimson Storm attain a 22-13 lead. For the Bison, Chambers led the team with nine points while
Malou Savanna hit a last-second jumper to bring the deficit to nine.
Within a minute of the second, the Bison had cut the deficit to seven, 22-15, after Leslie's jumper in the paint. Over the next three sequences, OBU got several stops on defense, but couldn't get closer on offense.
The Storm followed with seven straight points and after two freebies from Cassandra Awatt, the top seed led 29-15 with 4:44 until half. By the end of the second, SNU held a 14-point lead, 35-21.
After the break, OBU did a good job on offense hitting 6-of-12 from the field. But SNU used a 6-for-8 effort at the foul line to help stay in front double digits. Giddey and Georgia Adams led SNU with five points each in the period.
Then in the final stanza, the Bison's unwavering efforts to get closer to the Storm wouldn't come to fruition. In fact, SNU, a team with the 38th-best scoring defense in the country, limited the green and gold to 3-of-16 shooting.
It was the final game for Chambers, Savanna and
Melissa Southard who finished with four points, three assists and two rebounds.
