Saints Geared to Defend RRAC Title
SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 22, 2023) – The Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) women's basketball team surges into the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) Championship Tournament as the No. 4 seed. The Saints finished the regular season with a 15-12 overall record and a 12-8 conference mark under the new direction of Head Coach Tanya Ray and Assistant Coach Chris Burks.
The Saints started the season 3-3 before heading into conference competition. They started RRAC play by winning five straight games, including wins over LSU-Shreveport (LSUS) and LSU-Alexandria (LSUA). OLLU also beat Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) over that span and will play them in the quarterfinals on Friday as the Gold Nuggets earned the No. 5 seed.
OLLU faltered in four of the final five contests of the conference schedule. They defeated the University of the Southwest (USW) recently on Feb. 18 but lost to XULA, Louisiana Christian University (LCU), Texas A&M University-Texarkana (TAMUT) and Huston-Tillotson University (HTU). The Saints swept Jarvis Christian University (JCU), Texas College (TC) and USW during the season.
The RRAC Championship Tournament consists of eight teams. Texarkana grabbed the first seed after an impressive 25-1 overall record and an undefeated 20-0 campaign in conference. LSUS earned the number two seed, and LCU edged out OLLU and Xavier for the third spot. The Saints and Gold Nuggets both went 12-8 in conference and split the two matchups, but the Saints held the tiebreaker, which dropped XULA to the five seed. LSUA is the sixth seed, followed by HTU at seven and Jarvis at eight. The Saints are the defending champions after knocking off LCU in the championship game last year.
The quarterfinals will kick off the tournament on Friday with the following schedule:
No. 4-seed OLLU vs. No. 5-seed Xavier University (3 p.m.)
No. 3-seed LCU vs. No. 6-seed LSUA (4:45 p.m.)
No. 2-seed LSUS vs. No. 7-seed HTU (6:30 p.m.)
No. 1-seed TAMUT vs. No. 8-seed JCU (8:15 p.m.)
The semifinals consist of the winner of game two versus the winner of game three. The second matchup is the victors of game one and game four. The games will be played on Saturday, with the championship game on Sunday. The tournament is hosted by LSUA at the Rapides Coliseum in Alexandria, La.
Natalia Trevino leads the Saints by averaging 15 points per game. Tiffany Lopez grabbed 178 rebounds during the season and tied Makayla White with 20 blocks apiece. The Saints limited opponents to 23.3 percent shooting from three-point range. OLLU had an 11-4 mark at home, 4-7 record on the road and lost the lone neutral game.