March 8, 2007

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - No. 3 seed Ottawa University came back from a two-point halftime deficit to down No. 6 seed Saint Ambrose University, 67-57, in the first round of the16^th annual NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa.

The teams went back and forth in the first half, trading leads before Saint Ambrose (26-7) took a two-point lead (28-26) with a free throw at the buzzer.

Ottawa (24-8), behind the support of a vocal student section, opened the second half with an 11-4 spurt in the first three minutes. The Lady Braves continued to dominate the second half, out-scoring the Queen Bees 23-6 en route to the victory. At one point the Ottawa lead swelled to 19.

Saint Ambrose cut the lead to single digits with 39 ticks left in the game, but Ottawa made the most of their opportunities at the charity stripe, going 8-of-8 in the final 82 seconds.

The Queen Bees had nine players score, but just one in double figures. Jennifer Goetz finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds to record the double double. Jill Sweeny added nine. Despite the big rebounding performance by Goetz, Saint Ambrose came up short on the boards as Ottawa out-rebounded the Bees 50-36.

Ottawa had a balanced attack with five players reaching double digits. Hallie Boyce led the Lady Braves with 16 points. Others in double figures included Amanda Stichler (14), Krystal White (12), Tina Wilson (11) and Hallie Lee (10).

With the win Ottawa advances to the second round and will play the winner of Geneva and MidAmerica Nazarene on Friday at 10:15 a.m.