March 9, 2006

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - The Aquinas College (Mich.) Saints overpowered Berea College (Ky.) 84-53 in Thursday's first round of the 15^th annual NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship. The 2006 event is being held at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa.

 

A power outage interrupted the game midway through the first half. Play resumed after a delay of almost 30 minutes. The entire Sioux City downtown area was without power.

 

When play resumes the Saints increased their nine-point advantage to a 34-20 cushion at halftime.

 

Aquinas's Claire Hogan was three rebounds shy of a triple double.  She scored 15 points, had seven rebounds and 10 assists.  Jackie Braspenninx led the team in scoring with 20 points and 14 rebounds. The Saints held the edge in rebounding, 60-53, in a game that had 156 total shot attempts between the teams.

 

Berea brought their unconventional style to the national tournament for the first time this year. The team commonly substituted five new players every 60 seconds and set a goal of attempting at least 100 shots per game.

 

The Lady Mountainers attempted 87 shots, 46 of them from beyond the arc, in Thursday's game but connected on only 24 percent. LaShondra Gray led the team with 17 points and seven rebounds.  Sarah Hughes led Berea on the boards with 10.

 

Aquinas advances to the second-round on Friday at 4:00 p.m. where they will play the winner of Webber International University (Fla.) and College of the Ozarks (Mo.) who play later today.

 

For more information on the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship log on to www.naia.org.

 

Box Score