Yet a wide gap in free-throw attempts — the Stars made 20-of-40, the Gold Nuggets 12-of-17 — left Browder searching for answers.
"A reporter asked me after the game about the difference in free throws," Browder said. "I told him I didn't have a good explanation. I will say this — it was a very physical game on both sides. (Oklahoma City) wanted to intimidate us, but we didn't give in to them."
Coach Robert "Bo" Browder. (Photo courtesy of Xavier University).
Fourth-ranked Oklahoma City committed 16 personal fouls, and 20th-ranked Xavier was called for 30, its most since February 2005. XU freshman Carmen Holcombe, starting for the second straight game at center, fouled out, and teammates Keldra Hall, Marchelle Jones, Jazmonรฉ Kelly and Christina Warren had four fouls apiece.
Reserve guard Tiffany Goldwire, one of seven Stars to attempt four or more free throws, led OCU (27-3) with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Lauren Gober added 13 points and six rebounds and scored five points during an 11-0 first-half run which gave OCU the lead for good.
That run, in which five Stars scored and four of them had assists, turned Xavier's last lead (7-6) into a 17-7 OCU advantage with 12:26 remaining in the half. The Stars led 37-20 at halftime thanks to what Browder said was "some of our worst basketball in a long time."
How bad was it? The Nuggets (27-7) shot 25 percent from the floor — there was a 2-of-16 stretch which covered nearly 12 minutes — and tacked on 14 turnovers and 16 fouls in the first half.
Browder still had praise for Oklahoma City, a national semifinalist in 2009 and 2010 and a team ranked second in the coaches poll the majority of this season. "There's no dropoff in them from those earlier times we played them," Browder said. "Their talent on the roster one-through-10 is the best of any team still in the tournament. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll win out, but they have a lot of talent."
Jones, a junior guard playing her last game for Xavier — she is leaving XU and basketball to pursue academic opportunities for her double major of physics and electrical engineering — had 14 points, five rebounds and three steals. Jones was the Nuggets' only double-figure scorer, and she made a pair of 3-pointers in the final three minutes to equal her output of her first 99 collegiate games.
Brandi Young scored nine points, and Hall and freshman Chelsea Broussard scored seven apiece for Xavier. Broussard grabbed nine rebounds, her third highest total of the season, and Hall had seven. Danielle Kennebrew's six rebounds were her second-most this season.
Xavier limited senior guard Donica Cosby, a first-team NAIA All-American last season, to eight points and 2-of-9 from the floor. But XU's Warren — the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a 19-point scorer Wednesday against Lee (Tenn.) — had seven points in 25 minutes and was 3-of-10 from the floor in her final Xavier game.
Oklahoma City led by double digits for the final 27:18. Broussard's 3-point play at 12:56 cut the Stars' lead to 46-36, but Xavier never got closer. OCU answered Broussard's points with an 18-7 run which gave the Stars their biggest lead, 64-43, with 3:04 remaining. Still Xavier outscored Oklahoma City 31-30 in the second half.
The Stars outshot the Nuggets 39.3 to 32.7 percent from the floor. Xavier had a 41-40 rebound advantage but had a season-low two assists and gained a season-low 13 turnovers, almost half of XU's per-game average. Xavier finished with 21 turnovers, and the deficit of eight matched its worst of the season.
Xavier is 0-6 in the second round at the national tournament — Browder's teams are 0-2 — and four times Oklahoma teams eliminated the Nuggets in that round. The Stars have done it twice, and they also have a first-round victory against Browder's first XU team in 1999.
"We fought hard for 40 minutes and I'm proud of that," Browder said. "We were not fully loaded up here because of some injured players, but we'll be OK. We had a great year, and I'm thankful to these young ladies for stepping up and making it happen when we had some tough times."
Box score
NOTES: Ashley McGill, Xavier's other senior, did not attempt a shot in 14 relief minutes . . . The 16-point losing margin was Xavier's largest since a 73-56 loss to Lambuth in the first round of the 2008 national tournament . . . Xavier allowed a school-record-low 50.1 points per game and likely will hold on to No. 1 in NAIA Division I for the second consecutive season. The Gold Nuggets allowed 52.1 points per game in 2009-10.
By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
Xavier University of Louisiana
Visit: XULASports.com
