SILOAM SPRINGS — Having been ranked in the Top 25 most of the season, it wasn't a big surprise for the John Brown women's basketball team to see its name selected Wednesday for the NAIA Division I Women's National Tournament.
The true surprise came when the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles (25-7) got word they would be playing in-state school Lyon in the opening round.
2014 NAIA Division I Women's National Tournament
March 19-25
Frankfort (Ky.) Convention Center
Wednesday’s games
Game 1: Cumberlands (Ky.) vs. Baker (Kan.), 8:30 a.m.
Game 2: The Master’s (Calif.) vs. Bethel (Tenn.), 10:15 a.m.
Game 3: Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) vs. Wayland Baptist (Texas), noon
Game 4: Huston-Tillotson (Texas) vs. Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.), 1:45 p.m.
Game 5: Langston (Okla.) vs. Oklahoma City, 4 p.m.
Game 6: Montana State-Northern vs. Columbia (Mo.), 5:45 p.m.
Game 7: Southern Poly (Ga.) vs. Campbellsville (Ky.), 8 p.m.
Game 8: Westmont (Calif.) vs. Xavier (La.), 9:45 p.m.
Thursday’s games
Game 9: Shawnee State (Ohio) vs. Oklahoma Baptist, 9 a.m.
Game 10: Wiley (Texas) vs. Mobile (Ala.), 10:45 a.m.
Game 11: Hope International (Calif.) vs. MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), 12:30 p.m.
Game 12: Westminster (Utah) vs. William Woods (Mo.), 2:15 p.m.
Game 13: Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) vs. Talladega (Ala.), 4:30 p.m.
Game 14: Loyola (La.) vs. Georgetown (Ky.), 6:15 p.m.
Game 15: John Brown (Ark.) vs. Lyon (Ark.), 8 p.m.
Game 16: Vanguard (Calif.) vs. Cal State San Marcos (Calif.), 9:45 p.m.
Friday’s games
Game 17: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 9 a.m.
Game 18: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 10:45 a.m.
Game 19: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 12:30 p.m.
Game 20: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 2:15 p.m.
Game 21: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 4:30 p.m.
Game 22: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12, 6:15 p.m.
Game 23: Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14, 8 p.m.
Game 24: Winner Game 15 vs. Winner Game 16, 9:45 p.m.
Saturday’s games
Game 25: Winner Game 17 vs. Winner Game 18, 2 p.m.
Game 26: Winner Game 19 vs. Winner Game 20, 4 p.m.
Game 27: Winner Game 21 vs Winner Game 22, 6 p.m.
Game 28: Winner Game 23 vs. Winner Game 24, 8 p.m.
March 24
Game 29: Winner Game 26 vs. Winner Game 28, 6 p.m.
Game 30: Winner Game 25 vs. Winner Game 27, 8 p.m.
March 25, Championship
Game 31: Winner Game 29 vs. Winner Game 30, 6:30 p.m.
"I was a little surprised it was Lyon," said JBU head women's coach Jeff Soderquist. "I thought we'd be a fifth seed. I thought we'd play either one or two California schools or Lewis and Clark State (Idaho). I kind of thought who would be the fourth seeds, but I never dreamed they'd match us up with Lyon."
Lyon (24-8), which ended the season ranked No. 17 in the final NAIA Coaches' Poll, finished third in the American Midwest Conference. JBU, meanwhile, ended the season ranked No. 19 and finished fourth in the Sooner Athletic Conference.
The two teams will play at 8 p.m. Thursday in the opening round at the Frankfort (Ky.) Convention Center.
The winner will advance to Friday's 9:45 p.m. second round game against the winner of Thursday's late game between No. 1 seed Vanguard (Calif.) and No. 8 seed Cal State San Marcos (Calif.).
It's JBU's fourth tournament appearance in school history with the last appearance coming in 2010-11. JBU is 0-3 all-time in the national tournament, including a 76-51 loss to Campbellsville (Ky.) in 2011.
The Golden Eagles though are in a much better situation heading into this year's tournament than three years ago. That JBU team, though it had 20 wins on its resume, lost five of its last seven heading into the national tournament.
This year's team has set a new program record for wins (25) and came within an eyelash of winning the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament last weekend at Oklahoma Baptist. The Golden Eagles upset conference champion and No. 5-ranked Oklahoma City in the conference tournament semifinals before losing 60-57 to sixth-ranked conference host Oklahoma Baptist in the finals.
"As we talked (Wednesday), I don't know that we need to do a whole bunch of things different than we did in the conference tournament," Soderquist said. "We need to clean up some of the bad possessions we had. I thought for the most part we played pretty well. I think in the semifinals, you know when you upset teams, it usually means one team played bad or one team played really well. City didn't play that bad. ... They were on fire right there hitting 3s. It was a game I thought we played well, and I thought we played well against OBU. There was a stretch there in the second half where we didn't, then we had some good looks at the end of the game."
This year's JBU team also features three players who were freshmen on the 2010-11 national tournament team in seniors Sierra Shipley, Kortni Barenberg and Kami Garrison. All three played in the tournament game against Campbellsville with Shipley scoring a game-high 13 points and Garrison chipping in nine points.
"Our seniors were freshmen when we did this last time," Soderquist said. "All three of them -- Kortni, Sierra and Kami -- all played in that game as freshmen, so it's not like they were freshmen sitting on the bench. They all got court time. I think that's huge."
The Golden Eagles are somewhat familiar with this year's first-round opponent.
JBU played the Scots twice last year, losing 68-65 at Bill George Arena and dropping a 57-56 loss to the Scots in Batesville later in the year.
"We played them twice last year and they were two games that summed up our whole season," Soderquist said. "We had them beat at their place and made some mistakes there at the end and lost by 1. Here we had them beat and lost there at the end, which was typical of our whole year."
Tracy Stewart-Lange is in her ninth season at Lyon, which is making its third straight appearance in the national tournament.
"Tracy's done a good job. I've known Tracy a long time," Soderquist said. "Lyon's always been a school that has struggled, and since they hired Tracy, each year they've gotten better and better."
Lyon sophomore Carina Jackson leads the Scots in scoring at 14.9 points per game, while sophomore Taylor Gaedtke is averaging 10.3 points and 6.2 rebounds.
"They're similar to us," Soderquist said. "They have a couple of people that can score inside. They've surrounded them by good shooters. We're going to have to play defense."
Shipley leads JBU in scoring at 16.2 points per game and is ninth nationally in 3-point percentage at 44.2 percent. Barenberg is averaging 11.2 points per game.
Lyon did play three Sooner Athletic Conference teams in the non-conference portion of its schedule. The Scots defeated both Southwestern Christian (71-60) and Saint Gregory's (71-49) but lost at Oklahoma Baptist (68-56).
Sports on 03/18/2014