OLIVET NAZARENE BOWS OUT OF THE CCAC TOURNAMENT FOLLOWING ROAD LOSS TO SXU

CHICAGO, Ill. – The Olivet Nazarene women's basketball suffered a 107-69 defeat to the top-seeded Saint Xavier Cougars Wednesday as they bow out of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Tournament Thursday night.

SXU stormed out to a 9-2 lead in the first 2:34 of the game. The Tigers' five steals and the home team's eight turnovers allowed the Purple and Gold to find their footing and chip away at the deficit. At the 3:20-mark, Caroline Boehne swiped an inbound pass followed by a layup to tie up the game 18-18. Jamie Finn ended the first 10 minutes of play with a layup from underneath the basket as ONU trailed 22-20.

Johnson started the second quarter off with a jump shot 12 seconds in to tie the game back up at 22-22. The Cougars found their stroke and built their lead to 10 at the 2:38-mark. Olivia Demosthenes' back-to-back three-pointers stopped the bleeding as the score stood 44-40 in favor of SXU. A Saint Xavier layup with 11 ticks left on the clock allowed the home side to take a seven-point lead at the break.  

Halftime: Saint Xavier 48, Olivet Nazarene 41

ONU could not find an answer to SXU's offense as the Cougars shot 70 percent from the field while converting 3-4 from beyond the arc out of the locker room. Zanna Myers did her best to slow down the Chicago-based side as she drained three three-pointers in the quarter. The lead grew to 26 at the end of the third period after the Cougars made a deep three as the clock expired.

The Cougars kept the pressure on the Tigers and led by a game-high 40 points with 4:19 left in the contest. SXU went on the eliminate ONU for the CCAC Tournament.

Game Vitals

Final: Saint Xavier 107, Olivet Nazarene 69

Records: Olivet Nazarene 20-11 (CCAC 16-7) | Saint Xavier 25-5 (CCAC 22-1)

Location: Shannon Center | Saint Xavier University | Chicago, Ill.

Quick Hits

• Kennedy Johnson led the team in points (14) and assists (6) on the night.
• The Tiger bench totaled 19 of the 33 total rebounds.
• Zanna Myers shot 3-6 from beyond the arc attributed to 12 points in the game.
• ONU assisted on 12 of their 25 made field goals.

The Tigers will await the NAIA Tournament Committee to announce the field for the 2021-22 National Tournament Bracket for an at-large bid. Please visit onutigers.com for the most up to date links to follow all the action.

--ONU—

*Contact: Patrick Kaindl, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, pkaindl@olivet.edu