River States Conference

RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The women's basketball teams at University of Rio Grande (Ohio) and Oakland City (Ind.) University spent the course of the regular season schedule battling for supremacy in the River States Conference.

      That said, it was no surprise that Tuesday night's RSC Championship final between the top-seeded RedStorm and the No. 2 seed Mighty Oaks played out the exact same way with 10 ties and 11 lead changes.

      Rio Grande coughed up a 12-point lead with just under four minutes left to play, but responded by scoring seven of the game's final nine points for a 95-90 victory at the Newt Oliver Arena.

      The RedStorm, ranked No. 21 in the final regular season NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll, pushed its record to 26-5 with the win.

      Head coach David Smalley's squad has now won the last three regular season and conference tournament championships.

      Oakland City, which was among the teams receiving votes in the same coaches' poll, had its 11-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 23-7.

      Both teams will represent the River States Conference in the upcoming NAIA Women's Basketball Championship - Rio Grande via its championship sweep and the Mighty Oaks as the tournament runner-up - beginning March 15 at 16 First Round sites across the country.

      Pairings will be announced on Thursday night.

      Rio Grande trailed 44-43 at halftime, but took a 68-63 advantage into the final stanza.

      The RedStorm lead grew to 85-73 after a bucket by Harlei Antritt with 3:51 remaining, but Oakland City roared to life with a 15-3 run over the next 2-1/2 minutes and knotted the score at 88-all on a running jumper by Gabrielle Joyner with 1:17 left to play.

      Antritt gave Rio the lead for good by connecting on a pair of free throws with 57.4 seconds remaining and the RedStorm went 7-for-8 at the foul line in the final minute to nail down the win.

      Kaylee Darnell led six Rio Grande players with 18 points and a game-best seven assists, while Antritt and Reagan Willingham scored 15 points apiece.

      Aleea Crites had 14 points and a pair of blocked shots in the winning effort, while Lexi Woods netted 11 points and pulled down a team-best nine rebounds. All of Woods' points and all but one of her rebounds came in the second half.

      Lavender Ward completed the RedStorm's corps of double-digit scorers with 10 points.

      Jayla Dowell scored a season- and career-high 29 points to go along with a game-best 12 rebounds in a losing cause for Oakland City.

      Kyrisha Hay added 17 points and four steals for the Mighty Oaks, while Erin Whitehead had 16 points and Monesjia Harvey finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists.