Biola women’s basketball ended its remarkable season on Saturday night with a 74-52 quarterfinal loss against No. 2 Union University at the NAIA National Championship tournament.
Upset’s over two top-10 teams sets up quarterfinal game
Before making it to quarterfinals, the unranked Eagles first pulled off an upset against No. 7 Lee University, and cruised to a 73-58 win over Langston University; they ended their season with an overall record of 23-11.
Biola’s first game against Lee was not an easy one. Although the Eagles never allowed them to take the lead, Lee never trailed too far behind. It was Biola’s 60.87 shooting percentage in the second period that helped them take the win and continue to the next round.
“In the second half we really came alive, we were just going with what we learned all season,” freshman Chelsea Hill said. “A lot of it was endurance because we had to finish our shots.”
Biola led by 11 with 2:58 left in the half, but a 14-6 run by Lee in the last two minutes of the game cut the game close. The Eagles were able to survive Lee’s late surge, winning the game by three.
The Eagles answered everything Langston threw at them. Biola ended the first half shooting 16-of-29 and drained six 3-pointers. Their persistent defense kept Langston at a 40 field goal percentage in the first half and a low 23.53 in the second. Langston trailed by double digits most of the second half.
“We pride ourselves on our defense,” Hill said. “We’re just known to be aggressive and work hard.”
The last game was not as easy for the Eagles as the first two. The Union University defense detained them and took a 13 lead at the end of the first half.
“We definitely got a little down on ourselves,” Hill said. “We got a little flustered and then they just kept increasing their lead and we would try to fight it back but we would be trying too hard which would mess us up more.”
Second half struggles bring season to end
Things continued to fall apart in the second half when the Eagles were held to 8-of-32 shooting, allowing the Union’s Bulldogs to gain momentum. Union had no trouble working from the perimeter. They managed to make 75 percent of their 3-point shots in the second half, and their sturdy defense kept Biola to a 34 percent field goal percentage.
Union University managed to make it to the national championship, but fell to Oklahoma City 69-48 Tuesday night.
Senior Charrise Reece ended her college career with an impressive participation in this tournament as she scored a total of 45 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. Sophomore Adijat Adams added a total of 35 points and Hill contributed another 30.
The Eagles will be losing three seniors, but are already excited about their next season. Hill and Adams also explained how they have a deep bench for next year.
“We’re losing three very important people that were starters and seniors,” Adams said. “So what we can do differently to improve for next year is have some underclassmen step up and bring something to the table like the seniors never left.”
