INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – Headed into to play on Friday afternoon in the second round of the NAIA Div. I Women's Basketball National Championship, No. 1-ranked Our Lady of the Lake University (Texas) led the NAIA in scoring with an average of 83.6.
The fifth-seeded and No. 19-ranked Raven Women's Basketball team held them to a season low 63 points en route to snapping the Saints 30-game winning streak with a 71-63 in the Second Round of this year's National Championship.
"All and all we played great defense," said head coach Chad Folsom. "We really made it hard on them to score.
"We knew they had some good shooters so we were conscious of defending them. We lost them a couple of times in transition as we also had to be conscious of their penetration. The ladies played with a lot of confidence and composure and that was a key at the end of the last game and big key throughout this game."
With 5:08 remaining in the game, the Benedictine (28-6) scored eight straight points to erase a 55-52 deficit to take back over the lead for good.
Jordan Kramer fueled the Ravens offensive swing with back-to-back 3-pointers after Ali Taff converted a pair of free throws.
The icing on the cake came with 17 seconds remaining when Lexie Villegas throw a touchdown pass to Kristen Murphy, who pulled in the pass, converted the layup and drew a foul to push the Ravens ahead by seven points, 68-61.
"That's one of our press breakers late, and Lexie made the read," Coach Folsom said. "We weren't telling her that she had to throw it deep, but she knew that it was there and she made the read and had the confidence to make the throw. Those two have been playing together for the past six years and were able to make another great connection. It was a great finish by Kristen and it was another sign of how confident they are and how composed they were."
Murphy added another pair of free throws inside the final seconds of the game to help seal the win and send the Ravens back to the Quarterfinals for the second time in program history.
OLLU (30-3) took a 20-16 lead into the second quarter but the Ravens used a 20-point second quarter to erase their early deficit to lead 36-30 at the half.
The Saints were able to make another run at the Ravens in the third quarter, outscoring Benedictine 17-13, but the Ravens still held a two-point advantage into the final 10 minutes of play.
OLLU took over the lead early in the fourth quarter as the teams played through two ties and three lead changes, the last of which the Ravens neve gave back.
Benedictine finished the second half a perfect 7 for 7 from the charity stripe to finish the game at 87.5 percent. They also converted on 11 3-pointers to move their season total to 284, move them to No. 1 in the NAIA.
The Saints entered play ranked fourth in the NAIA in offensive rebounds per game at 17.1. The Ravens held them to seven as Benedictine won the rebounding battle 40-27.
"We knew they were a really good offensive rebounding team and one of the top in the country," Coach Folsom said. "We knew we'd have to box out and I thought that our ladies did a great job throughout of boxing them out. We knew we couldn't let them get a second shot and we did a good job of that all game long."
Murphy led three Ravens in double figures with 24 and 11 rebounds. Kramer added 15 while LaRanda Thomas added 10 points off the bench, which held a 15-8 advantage.
Benedictine returns to the floor inside Silverstein Eye Centers Arena for a 2 p.m. game on Saturday as they take on Naismith Bracket No. 2 seed and overall No. 8 ranked Campbellsville (Ky.) University for a shot at a trip to the NAIA Div. I Women's Basketball Fab Four.
