March 13, 2009

Final Stats

3.13.09 - Winona Lake, Ind.- The Mid-America Christian University women's basketball team ended their run for a NCCAA national title on Friday evening with a loss to Mt. Vernon Nazarene in the semifinal.

A big second-half from senior point guard Rachel Fiely allowed the second-seeded Mt. Vernon Nazarene Cougars to advance to the championship game over Mid-America Christian in the NCCAA Women's Division I tournament on Friday, 70-55.

Fiely scored 14 of her 17 points in the final 8:30 of play including hitting clutch free throws down the stretch to lead the Lady Cougars to victory. Fiely also added 6 assists while sophomore center Amanda Himes scored a game-high 20 points and brought down 12 boards for her second double-double of the tournament.

The Lady Cougars started strong taking a lead as large as 12 points, but the Lady Evangels refused to go away and fought back to within 3 for a 35-32 Mt. Vernon lead at halftime.

Mid-America would tie the game with 15:18 to play on a Nathalia Araujo 3-pointer but that's as close as they would get the rest of the way. Mt. Vernon controlled the rest of the game leading by as much as 17 points en route to a victory.

The Lady Evangels featured just two players in double-digits. Junior Karina Trindade recorded her second consecutive double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and teammate Tiphani Eaves added 13 points of her own.

Mt. Vernon now awaits the winner of the game between Emmanuel College and Palm Beach Atlantic University in the championship game to be played at 5pm on Saturday. The loser of the game tonight will play the Lady Evangels in the 3rd place game Saturday at 3pm.