Kyle Semprini
Sports Editor

The Briar Cliff women’s basketball team had their hands full in the third round of the national tournament when they took on the Cardinal Stritch University Wolves Saturday night.

Cardinal Stritch came into the game with a 19-game winning streak to post a record of 30-2 on the season.

Briar Cliff scored the first six points of the contest but the Wolves struck back with five consecutive points of their own. The Chargers then went on a 7-0 run to make it 13-5 at the 12:00 mark.

The Wolves didn’t go away, however. After trailing by as much as ten, they stormed back to tie it 28-28, right before halftime with a layup in the closing seconds by Liz Neitzel.

The Wolves outshot the Chargers, shooting 40 percent while BC was held to 33 percent. Briar Cliff dominated the boards, though, nabbing 29 in the first half while Cardinal Stritch ended the half with 10. The Wolves’ defense forced the Chargers into 15 turnovers the first half while only committing six of their own.
The Chargers came out of halftime on a 4-0 run after a pass by Kylie Dilla to Megan Salcedo for a lay-up and a steal by Morgan Brown that led to two Likeisha Dotson free throws.

After a scoring drought by both teams, the Chargers managed to stretch the lead to eleven at the 10:00 mark. Briar Cliff had its biggest lead of the game with the score at 44-33. The Chargers went on another scoring run to put the score at 51-33 at the six minute mark.

The Wolves came back within seven with three minutes left to go making the score 54-47.

The Chargers held on to win the quarterfinal, 62-53.

The Chargers were led by Liz Grider who had 19 points on the night. Salcedo had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Dilla added nine points while also registering three assists and four steals.

The Wolves had three in double figures including Michelle Stelloh with 17, Liz Neitzel with 11, and Brittney Daum with 10.

Briar Cliff was tested in the second round of the national tournament when they took on No. 5 ranked Cedarville.

Briar Cliff struck first with a lay-up by Dotson. The score was tight throughout the first half with several ties and lead changes. At the 11:00 mark, the Chargers took the lead with a score of 14-13. Kela Cihak scored six straight points off the bench to extend the lead to 10, making the score 27-17.

Briar Cliff went into halftime with a 31-21 lead. The Chargers shot 24 percent from the field while holding the Yellow Jackets to 17 percent. Cedarville went 7 for 8 from the free throw line while BC went 11 for 17. The Chargers forced the Yellow Jackets into 14 first half turnovers, nine of those unforced.

The Yellow Jackets responded coming out of halftime, hitting a three-pointer to cut the lead to seven. The Chargers answered back with a three by Grider to put the score to 34-24. The Chargers went on a 16-5 scoring run after that, pushing the lead to 47-29.

“We got into a rhythm in the second half,” said Head Coach Mike Power. “The key is cutting loose and just playing.”

At the 12:00 mark, the Chargers led, 55-38.
The Yellow Jackets did cut the lead to 12 with 5:46 left to go in the game after a jumper by Lydia Miller. However, the Chargers didn’t panic as they stretched the lead to 20 with 1:30 to go.

Briar Cliff defeated the Yellow Jackets with a final score of 81-62. The Chargers were led by Liz Grider who put up 36 points in the contest.

“It felt great out there tonight,” said Grider. “That was a really good team out there that we beat and that certainly will give us confidence going into the next game.”

Salcedo added 10 while Cihak put in eight points off the bench. Dilla and Dotson both chipped in seven points in the winning effort.

The team’s leading scorer said the defense was the key to winning the game.
“We pride ourselves on our defense and if we play defense well we are tough to beat,” Grider said.

Rebounding made the difference Thursday night when the Chargers played their opening round game against Holy Names University.

The Briar Cliff women brought down 73 rebounds, outrebounding the Hawks by 15.

The Chargers had the first bucket of the game on a fast-break lay-up by Salcedo, who finished the game with four points and 13 rebounds. The Chargers were led by Brown and Grider who had 22 and 20 respectively. Dilla and Kelsey Evans both chipped in nine points, while Cihak added 8.

“We did some good things but we couldn’t really get into a rhythm offensively,” said Power. “We missed some easy shots because we were just out of rhythm.”
It was a defensive struggle to start the game. Three minutes into the game the score was 2-0. Then Briar Cliff went on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 9-0. The Hawks scored their first bucket at the 14:38 mark.

“We played pretty good defense early,” said Power. “But it got sloppy as the game went on.”

At the 13:06 mark in the first half, the Chargers were up 17-2. Briar Cliff went into halftime ahead 47-30. BC had 40 rebounds in the first half.

In the second half the Hawks managed to cut the lead to 9 after a steal for a three-pointer that put the score to 58-49. The Chargers did manage to fend off the Hawks, beating them with a score of 87-65.

With their three wins in the first three rounds of the tournament, the Chargers improved to 28-7 on the season and advance to the NAIA Women’s National Tournament Final Four. This is the program’s third Final Four under Coach Power.
Briar Cliff will play the Northwestern Red Raiders at 8 p.m., Monday in the national semifinals in Tyson Events Center. The Lady Chargers are 1-2 against Northwestern this year.