JOPLIN, Mo. – The Dallas Christian College women's basketball team finished a busy week of games with two away contests that went through Ecclesia College in Springdale, Arkansas, and No. 4 Ozark Christian College on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. DCC prevailed 54-47 over Ecclesia and fell to Ozark Christian, 68-57.
The Crusaders split the pair of away matchups to improve to 16-6 on the campaign. They did drop to 1-4 against NCCAA Southwest Division II opponents and 1-4 against teams in the national power rankings.
DCC at Ecclesia College
Unlike these team's first meeting that was part of the 2021 DCC Thanksgiving Classic, where the Crusaders won 73-46; the Royals were stronger and never allowed a deficit to be more than seven points.
The Crusaders held a five-point lead after one quarter. After both sides struggled to nine points in the second, it was three-point game heading to the quarter for DCC. The guests took the first points to go up five, but Ecclesia tried to make a move to pull within one on a trey by Madison Bailey with just over six minutes.
Keiarra Rivers had a jumper with under five minutes and
Amber Covington netted consecutive baskets push the lead to five. The Royals tied things at 47 with 1:08 left, but Covington had a three-point play and then
Naiya Brown and two
Courtnee Locke free throws sealed the late-game win against an NCCAA Women's Basketball Division I program.
Covington remains on a torrid performance streak with a game-high 17 points. She notched her fourth double-double in a row this week by adding 12 rebounds. Rivers also had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards for the second time this week and in the past three games.
Faith Salinas garnered nine boards and
Naiya Brown added nine points.
Ecclesia moved to 5-11 overall. Callie Whitfield led the team with 13 points, while Madison Bailey totaled 11 points and seven boards.
The Crusaders shot 32.8 percent overall and were 3-for-21 on three-point attempts. They scored 14 second chance points and logged 10 points off turnovers.
DCC at No. 4 Ozark Christian College
Dallas Christian College looked to avenge an earlier season loss to the Ambassadors when DCC was ranked number four in the power rankings and its opposition was seventh. Things started out great for the Crusaders by scoring the opening 10 points in two and a half minutes.
Mckayla Washington netted the first six points and
Keiarra Rivers followed with the next four on a pair of jumpers.
Ozark Christian got hot and scored the next nine points and closed the quarter on a 19-5 scoring swing. A trey by OCC's Lydia Pipins made it a 19-15 score in the final 26 seconds. It was a standstill in the second quarter with both teams scoring 13 points to give the Ambassadors a 32-28 edge at intermission. Washington led DCC with 10 points, while Rivers and
Amber Covington had nine and seven, respectively, for all-but two of the Crusaders' points.
Neither team had much offense in the third quarter for over five minutes, but Ozark Christian would build a double-digit lead with a 10-0 run. A layup by Rivers at 4:17 ended the dry spell, but a couple of trifectas allowed OCC to go up as many as 15. The Crusaders did not allow the margin to slip deeper than that, but struggled to put together any form of a run the rest of the way. The closest DCC came was on a three-point play by Covington with 1:32 left. The Crusaders did outscore the home team by two in the fourth quarter and it was the only frame they did on the afternoon.
Both contests against Ozark Christian College, DCC failed to score 20 or more points in a single quarter, which has only occurred in a handful of games this season. These pair of games on the road trip were the first time this season DCC did not meet that mark in consecutive games.
Rivers led the Crusaders with 20 points and shot 7-for-13 from the field. Her 10 rebounds gave her three consecutive games with double-doubles. The junior from Manor, added two steals and assists. This is her third game of the season to eclipse 20 points. The other two times were November 15 (Texas Christian College) with 21 and Nov. 19 (Randall University) with 28.
Covington saw her impressive double-double streak end at four games from this week, but she contributed a steady 15 points to extend her double-digit streak in that single category to five. Through six games in 2022, the Rogers, Arkansas, native has delivered double figure scoring marks in all-but one game with was eight versus Southwestern Christian College. She grabbed five rebounds and swiped three steals.
Washington rounded out the trio of double-digit scorers with 12 points. She was part of a quartet that recorded three steals. Besides Covington and Washington were
Naiya Brown and
Taylor Brokenberry.
Faith Salinas was the team leader with four and she was second highest on the glass with seven.
The Crusaders shot 32.3 percent from the field and went 0-for-16 from deep. They made 17 free throws on 27 tries. DCC did hold a 22-17 advantage on points off turnovers and 36-24 edge on points in the paint, despite the size disadvantage. The guests were quick on the break with a 20-7 scoring advantage. This included a 10-0 difference in the final quarter.
The Ambassadors improved to 14-2 on the season. They shot 38.1 percent and made eight treys on 27 attempts. The free throw line was a 12-for-19 result. OCC would get a double-double from Kamryn Gentry on team-highs in points (13) and boards (19). She had all but 30 of the team's 49, which was 10 better than DCC's 39. Ozark Christian did commit 26 turnovers. Taylor Peterson was the other significant scorer with 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting and 2-for-3 from behind the three-point arc.
Dallas Christian is back home after a week off with the calendar flipping to February. On the first day, DCC hosts Randall University in the first of a home-and-home regional showdown. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m. The last time these teams met was in November during the DCC Thanksgiving Classic, and the Crusaders prevailed in double overtime.
"Dallas Christian educates and mentors students to be people of influence engaging in their calling to the work of Christ in the church and in the world."
