Rio chops down Mighty Oaks to reach RSC title game

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - After suffering their lone regular season in-conference loss to Oakland City University, the University of Rio Grande women's basketball team was hoping that, perhaps, the post-season would offer the chance to gain a measure of revenge against the Mighty Oaks.
     It did, and the RedStorm made the most the opportunity presented to them.
     Head coach David Smalley's squad built a 21-point lead after three quarters and then held off a late comeback effort by their guests for an 87-77 win in the semifinal round of the River States Conference Women's Basketball Championship, Saturday afternoon, at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, which was tied for 12th in the latest NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll, improved to 27-3 with the victory and advanced to Tuesday's championship game where it will host Midway University at 7 p.m. in a rematch of last season's title tilt.
     Midway defeated Alice Lloyd College, 76-60, in Saturday's other semifinal contest.
     Oakland City, which posted a 15-point win over Rio at home in their regular season meeting on Jan. 21 when both sported unbeaten marks in conference play, finished at 20-8 with a fifth loss in their final eight games.
     The Mighty Oaks scored the game's first four points and led 6-5 after a bucket by Taylor Dillard with 7:21 left in the opening quarter, but Rio Grande reeled off eight consecutive points and never trailed again.
     The RedStorm, behind 23 first-half points from senior standout Ella Skeens (Chillicothe, OH), opened up an 11-point second quarter cushion before settling on a nine-point, 45-36, advantage at the intermission.
     The lead then ballooned to 21 points, 73-52, after junior Lavender Ward (Charleston, WV) connected on a three-pointer just before the buzzer to close out the third quarter, but Oakland City refused to go away quietly and certainly managed to make things interesting down the stretch.
     The Mighty Oaks scored 16 of the first 20 points in the game's final quarter and closed the gap to 77-68 after a jumper in the lane by Jalaya Dowell with 5:36 left to play.
     Rio Grande pushed the lead back to 12 points over the next minute-and-a-half, 80-68, but OCU mounted one last surge and cut the deficit to just five, 82-77, after Dillard connected on a three-pointer with 1:14 remaining.
     Those points, though, would be the last of the day for the Mighty Oaks.
     Neither team managed a field goal the rest of the way, but the RedStorm went 5-for-6 at the free throw line over the final 18.9 seconds to set the final score.
     Skeens led Rio Grande - and all scorers - with 29 points, while junior Lexi Woods (Waverly, OH) and sophomore Kaylee Darnell (Wheelersburg, OH) added 12 and 11 points, respectively, to the winning effort.
     Woods also had a team-best six rebounds for the RedStorm, while sophomore Azyiah Williams (Ripley, OH) finished with a game-high 14 assists and three steals.
     Rio Grande shot 46 percent overall (31-for-67) and 83 percent at the foul line (20-for-24), while also outrebounding the Mighty Oaks, 39-38.
     Oakland City actually shot the ball better than the RedStorm, going 32-for-66 overall (48.5%) and 7-for-13 from three-point range (53.8%), but was just 6-for-12 at the foul line and - in addition to getting outrebounded - had 22 turnovers that led directly to 28 Rio Grande points.
     Dowell and Marissa Austin had 18 points apiece to lead a quartet of double-digit scorers for OCU, while Dillard finished with 17 points and Erin Whitehead netted 10.
     Dillard also had six assists and three steals, while Dowell blocked six shots and Davinique Campbell finished with a game-high eight rebounds.
     Emilee Hope, Oakland City's leading scorer for the season at 15.7 ppg, was limited to just three shot attempts and finished with only three points.