FRANKFORT, Ky. — John Brown came within an eyelash of pulling off another improbable comeback Monday in the Fab Four of the NAIA Division I Women’s National Tournament.
Instead, the best season in the history of the Golden Eagles program ended one game short of the national championship game.
Sierra Shipley’s layup attempt in the final seconds was too strong, and Oklahoma City corralled the rebound and held on for a 67-65 win inside Frankfort Convention Center.
The loss ends JBU’s season with an overall record of 28-8.
John Brown, which rallied from an 18-point deficit to defeat Loyola (La.) on Saturday in the Exclusive Eight, fell behind by 14 points to the Stars in the second half and still trailed by 12 with seven minutes, six seconds to go.
“The whole night, I just kept telling them if we were going to come back, we had to get stops,” said JBU coach Jeff Soderquist. “I wasn’t worried about our offense. If we were going to come back, we had to get stops, and we started getting stops. That was the key.”
The Golden Eagles began to rally for the second straight game and pulled within 67-65 with 2:22 left on a pair of free throws from Shipley. JBU would end up holding the Stars scoreless in the final 4:24 of the game.
After misses on both ends of the floor and turnovers from both JBU and Oklahoma City, JBU garnered possession of the basketball with 21 seconds left and called timeout.
Soderquist drew up a final play that would give Shipley, the team’s All-American senior from Fayetteville, a chance to tie or pass to an opponent for a shot.
Shipley caught the ball with less than 10 seconds remaining at the top of the key, dribbled left and cut to the basket. Her left-handed attempt was too strong off the backboard, and the Stars’ Yvonte Neal rebounded as time expired.
Oklahoma City will play in its 10th championship game in program history at 5:30 p.m. today against the winner of Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) and Wiley (Texas).
“First I want to give credit to Jeff and John Brown University,” said Oklahoma City coach Latricia Trammell. “What a great team. They really fight for 40 minutes. I knew that when we came in it was going to be a tough battle.”
Oklahoma City outrebounded JBU 43-23, incuding a 20-4 edge in offensive rebounds. The Stars had 22 second-chance points to JBU’s four.
JBU led by as many as nine points in the first half, but Oklahoma City closed the half on a 13-5 run. The Stars then opened the second half on a 9-0 run to go up 47-37, and they led by 14 twice.
Four Stars scored in double figures, led by Autumn Huffman’s 17 points, 13 from Kayla McKenzie and 12 each from Neal and Ouleymatou Coulibaly.
It was Huffman’s long jumper with 4:24 remaining that gave the Stars what would be their winning points.
Shipley closed her JBU career with 23 points, while senior Kortni Barenberg had 17 points and junior Lauren Rogers 12 points.