JACKSON, Tenn. – Oklahoma City University's gritty performance on the hardwood boosted the Stars over Xavier (La.) 67-51 on Friday morning at Oman Arena.
The No. 1-seeded and fourth-ranked Stars women's basketball team, pushed through for the victory despite shooting 20-of-40 from the free-throw line in the game. OCU moved to 27-3 and advanced to play Shawnee State (Ohio) at 2 p.m. Saturday in the NAIA Division I Tournament quarterfinals.
OCU was led by Tiffany Goldwire, a junior from Oklahoma City, tied a season high with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field to lead all scorers. She added seven rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes to power the Stars. Lauren Gober, a sophomore from Newcastle, Okla., contributed 13 points, six rebounds and two steals in the win.
“I thought Tiffany was tremendous defensively and had 15 points, drove it to the basket, got big rebounds," OCU coach Rob Edmisson. "I thought she probably had one of her better games of the year. I thought our kids' defense was excellent, especially the first half holding them to 20 points. I thought we did a great job. Xavier played us pretty even in the second half, so it was a pretty good thing we had that 17 point lead in the first half.”
Xavier trailed 37-20 at the midpoint, but used an 8-0 run to close the gap to 44-33 with 13:51 to play. A Goldwire running layup was countered with a 3-point play by Danielle Kennebrew to cut the lead to 10 points. Goldwire responded with a converted basket and free throw of her own to cushion the Stars lead.
OCU owned the 8-7 lead with 14:58 to play in the first half. The Stars picked up the one-point advantage after a Booze steal and feed to a streaking Goldwire. OCU never trailed from that point forward.
The Stars used a lockdown defensive performance to streak to an 11-2 run midway through the first half. Xavier's Marchelle Jones stopped the Stars' scoring run with a offensive rebound and put back to set the score at 23-13 with 5:55 remaining before halftime.
“We knew they were a very, very aggressive, athletic team, and they were going to be out and guarding us,” Goldwire said. “They like to play a lot like us, and so we were kind of ready and kind of had a mental frame of how we should play it, and we had to be aggressive on the ball and aggressive on defense.”
The physicality in the game was evidenced with 25 total fouls called in the opening period – 16 against Xavier. The Gold Rush ended the day with 30 fouls that sent the Stars to the line for 40 attempts. OCU forced Xavier into 21 turnovers, including six by Jones. The Stars have forced their opponents into a combined 46 turnovers in the two tournament games.
“I thought our kids handled [the physical play] pretty well,” Edmisson said. “There was a lot of bumping, shoving, holding and I thought our kids handled it pretty well because we're a finesse team. See, that's why we got to the free throw line 40 times. They did what they needed to do with regard to the physical play, but we didn't do a good job of making free throws.”
The Stars stymied the Gold Rush into shooting 32.7 percent from the field. Xavier's defense, which helds teams to an NAIA-leading low of 49 points per night entering the game, pestered OCU's shooters into hitting just 39.3 percent from the field. Xavier owned the slim 41-40 rebounding edge, but OCU's 19 offensive rebounds led to 14 second-chance points.
“[The win] gives us a lot of momentum,” Goldwire said. “I think that once we get to the Elite Eight then we have that momentum, we have that extra push, we have that adrenaline flowing already so I think that we're all ready to play and really, really anxious how it's going to turn out. “
Boxscore
See Coach Edmisson's post-game comments:
Tiffany Goldwire talks about her season-high performance:
