JOPLIN, Mo. – The Dallas Christian College women's basketball team nearly upset the top-seeded and host Ozark Christian College on Thursday evening in the ACCA Tournament. The Crusaders were down as many as nine points in the fourth quarter, but used a 6-1 run in the late stages of the frame to make it a one-possession game.
 
Down five with three minutes left, the Crusaders got quick layups to pull within a point (70-69) with two and a half minutes to go. However, DCC could not find the go-ahead basket despite several chances. Ozark Christian was able to stretch the lead back to five, but two made free throws by Taylor Brokenberry cut the score to 74-71 with eight seconds left. A pair of misses on the other end setup a last chance shot for the Crusaders, but it was off the mark and Ambassadors prevailed a fourth time this campaign against DCC. This contest was the most competitive of the games, especially after the Ambassadors torrid shooting last Friday in the NCCAA Southwest Regional Semifinals.
 
The ACCA Championship will be a rematch of the Southwest Regional last Saturday between the winners, Champion Christian College and Ozark Christian. The Ambassadors improved to 26-3 on the season.
 
Dallas Christian falls to 24-10 overall and will play Carolina Christian College at 12:45 p.m. The winner will be considered third place in the tournament.
 
DCC's NCCAA Southwest All-Region Second Team players, Amber Covington and Keiarra Rivers were the leading players on the lower seeds side. The All-Region duo secured double-doubles with Covington notching a team-high 20 points. Rivers had 12 and the pair each garnered a dozen rebounds.
 
Rounding out the trio of double-digit scorers with 12 from the bench was Taylor Brokenberry. The sophomore forward neared a double-double with eight boards. She shot 5-of-9 overall and claimed eight points in the second half.
 
Mckayla Washington scored nine points, while Faith Salinas had eight points and seven boards. Covington and Naiya Brown combined for six of the team's 11 assists. Another impressive stat for the Crusaders was a season-low nine turnovers. Although a couple came late in the game and may have impacted the finale.
 
The Crusaders shot 36.4 percent overall and struggled to shoot from three with a 1-of-13. Brown had the only triple for the Crusaders.
 
Free throws haunted both teams, with DCC going 14-for-25 compared to 14-for-26 by the Ambassadors. The Crusaders did hold an advantage on points off turnovers, 16-9. With six in the first and fourth stanzas, DCC held a 12-0 edge on fastbreak points. Interestingly, the Crusaders won the second chance points, 15-12, despite a slight edge by The Ambassadors on total rebounds (58-50) and 21-17 on offensive rebounds.
 
A layup by Washington started the scoring 30 seconds started after a steal by Covington. Rivers had a tip-in for the next DCC points and a layup by Brown put DCC back up again, as the team led by no more than six on the night. The Ambassadors were able to go up by a point, (11-10), with a trifecta by Taylor Peterson with 3:15 minutes left and the home team never trailed the remainder of the way. Unit a layup by Covington with 1:47 left, OCC had scored seven straight points and would score 14 of the final 20 points to be ahead 22-16 through one.
 
Most of the second quarter was back and forth with Ozark Christian being outscored by the Crusaders by two points in that span with 19 points. Down eight at several junctures in the second, DCC would not fall back by double-digits at all. With a little over a minutes remaining until intermission, A pair of shots by Brokenberry and Rivers closed the gap to 39-5. That last made field goal by the Ambassadors was a trey by Peterson with 2:56 left.
 
After coming out of the third quarter with a slow showing in the first minutes that led to being down to a nine-point spread (45-36) early on. The Crusaders answered with seven consecutive points to slice the margin to 45-43 with 5:20 minutes left. Until the 3:43 mark when Peterson drilled a trey, neither team found much in that time. Brown answered with the team's lone three-pointer, but Peterson was shooting outstanding with a team-high 20 points. She shot 6-of-9 from downtown. The Ambassadors pushed a nine-point lead into the last quarter.  
 
 In a fourth quarter that saw DCC down, but not out, second-year head coach Larry Tidwell can say his girls never gave into adversity and went hard until the final horn. The Crusaders got to within one, as Courtnee Locke had an assist to Brokenberry. The point guard, Locke, swiped another ball and the theft that led to a fastbreak basket had brought the game to a 70-69 deficit for DCC. The Crusaders then had a few chances go up, as a turnover by Rivers was the first chance to flip the lead, but Rivers would hustle back for a blocked shot. OCC missed its second trey in three shot attempts but a second turnover would lead to Makenzie Purinton getting fouled. She made both free throws with a little over a minute thirty remaining. DCC missed a tying three-pointer and then after a turnover by Ozark Christian, the Crusaders went inside with Covington who got her own miss, but Brokenberry would be off on the second effort. Two missed free throws by Purinton left life for DCC, as another three-pointer was off the mark. Purinton and Brokenberry traded two free throws, but a last shot attempt was off, as the Ambassadors staved off the upset to DCC on their home court two years in a row in this tournament.
 
Kamryn Gentry continued to be a hard player to stop for the Crusaders with a double-double, 17 points and 24 rebounds. She also had a game-high six assists. Seven of her rebounds were on the offensive side.
 
Both teams eclipsed 50 rebounds, with the Crusaders achieving that mark in that category for the 16^th time this season.  

This was a matchup between two top-10 teams in the NCCAA Power Rankings, as Dallas Christian was eighth and Ozark Christian was third. 
 
The tournament on the women's side of the ACCA has seven teams with five teams from the NCCAA Southwest Regional. Four teams, including DCC were in the top 10 power rankings. Among those are host school Ozark Christian College, Southwest Regional Winners Champion Christian College, and 2020-21 ACCA Champions Arlington Baptist University. Kansas Christian is the fifth seed and other program from the region.
 
DCC opened with an 82-47 victory over Kansas Christian College on Wednesday. 
 
Women's Basketball Bracket (PDF)
Basketball Program (PDF)
 
Dallas Christian will try to send Head Coach Larry Tidwell out in style on Friday in what will be his final collegiate game to be a head coach, after he announced his retirement after this season.
 
"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."