SILOAM SPRINGS -- The Golden Eagles kicked off the most pivotal week of its season by pouring in a season-high 20 triples and rode four double-digit scorers to a 92-71 win over Oklahoma City on Tuesday night (Feb. 14) inside Bill George Arena to collect its seventh win in the last eight games.
Junior Natalie Smith scored a game-high 24 points, shooting 8-of-10 from behind the arc, and added five rebounds and four assists, while senior Tarrah Stephens added 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Sophomore Emily Sanders shot 6-of-7 from the floor to contribute 15 points and seven rebounds. Junior Leah Anderson came off the bench to score eight of her 10 points in the second half.
The Golden Eagles (19-7, 13-7 Sooner Athletic) moved the ball efficiently and shot the long ball at an incredible 62.5 percent clip. Seven different Golden Eagles scored at least one triple, helping John Brown pour in a season-high 20 treys on 32 attempts and fell just one short of the single-game program record of 21. Beyond that single-game season high, the hosts passed out 28 assists on 32 field goals (87.5 percent), another single-game high for the 2022-23 season.
Oklahoma City (12-13, 9-11) scored the game's first four points, but JBU retaliated with a 13-2 run – helped by a pair of triples from senior Lisa Vanoverberghe – to take a 13-6 lead and never look back. Three more triples before the end of the first provided a six-point cushion, 24-16.
John Brown hit 6-of-8 from behind the arc in the second quarter, but a 12-2 Stars rally to close out the first half kept the visitors in the contest, 50-36, despite the Golden Eagles pouring in 12 first-half triples.
Five more JBU triples in the third were largely countered by a strong offensive quarter that saw the Stars shoot 7-of-13 from the field, willed by Annilia Dawn's 11 points in the period.
Finally three minutes into the fourth, the hosts could enjoy a 20-point lead after Stephens and Smith each hit triples, bookending buckets from Stephens and graduate student Maci Mains. The margin would later grow to 24, a game-high.
The Golden Eagles shot a season-best 56 percent from the floor (32-of-57), and worked to a 39-29 shooting advantage over the visitors. Graduate student Maddie Altman pushed out seven assists and tallied three triples of her own.
The two-headed scoring machine of Oklahoma City was driven by Dawn and Amaya Gordon, as the duo contributed 19 points each in the loss, marking the first time JBU has swept the season series with the Stars since the 1995-96 season. The tandem also pulled down seven boards each.
John Brown, still within striking range of the fourth and final hosting seed of next week's Sooner Athletic tournament quarterfinals, will close out the regular season portion of its home schedule on Thursday night (Feb. 16) when it welcomes No. 23 Mid-America Christian (Okla.) to Bill George Arena. The SAC Sports Network will carry the game live, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
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