The Saint Xavier University women’s basketball team breezed through the first two games of the conference tournament this week to advance to the championship for the third year in a row.
The Lady Cougars handled Trinity Christian and Olivet Nazarene en route to an eventual rematch of the 2020 CCAC Tournament Final against St. Francis, in which the Fighting Saints edged the Cougars with a 66-63 win.
On Tuesday, No. 18 SXU defeated Trinity Christian 96-69 in the CCAC quarterfinal, then on Thursday, knocked out Olivet Nazarene 100-69 in the semifinals.
In the win against Olivet, the Cougars their second-best shooting percentage in team history, converting on 64.4% of their field-goals and had seven players score in double figures, including Claire Austin (19), Sidney Lovitsch (16), Alyssa Streeter (15), Alyssa Crenshaw (13), McKenna Zobel (12), Brianna Flayter (11), and Maia Fawcett (10).
Austin posted a triple-double with 19 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists against. This was only the seventh triple-double in program history and the first to since her teammate Brianna Flayter recorded one against Lincoln College a season ago.
The Cougars followed up this historic performance with undeniably their worst offensive outings in months against St. Francis.
After scoring over 100 points three times in the last four games, the Cougars struggled to put the ball in the hole out the gate and were held to just 11 points in the opening quarter.
This was essentially the story of the game for the Cougars as they were never really able to establish any rhythm offensively.
SXU trailed 45-31 at halftime. After the break, the Cougars were able to cut the deficit to six, but were never able to get any closer than that.
The Cougars shot only 38% from the field and 30% from behind the arc against St. Francis, and were taken down in the CCAC final 88-68.
Maia Fawcett led SXU with 15 points, six rebounds, two steals, and a blocked shot. Sidney Lovitsch was the only other Cougar to score in double-digits and ended the game with 13 points and five rebounds.
The loss snapped a 16 game winning-streak for the Cougars, giving them their first loss since the middle of December.
For the third year in a row, the Cougars have won the CCAC Regular Season, but have lost in the CCAC Tournament Championship.
The Lady Cougars will now be preparing for the NAIA Women’s Basketball Opening Round Tournament, which is set to begin on March 11.
The Bracket Reveal will be announced on Thursday, March 3 at 6:00pm central, so until then, they will wait to see where they will be placed for the Opening Round.
As a team with National Championship aspirations, the Cougars will be using this loss to St. Francis to fuel them going into the tournament.