SIOUX CITY, Iowa—With seemingly nothing going the way of top-seeded Southeastern, the Fire still found themselves in a position to play for a national title the next night.
Trailing by nine with 1:46 to play, the Fire scored nine straight points go to tie the game with 30 seconds left but fell 53-52 on a split pair of free throws by Dordt with three seconds left.
Reagan Linster connected on a 3-pointer with 1:28 left off an offensive rebound by
Marta Aranda. The Fire then forced a turnover out of a timeout, trapping the inbounds pass. That led to a layup by
Angela Perry and a free throw attempt off a foul with 1:23 to play.
Southeastern forced another turnover with full court pressure to yield a 10-second violation. The Fire (33-2) then got the ball back after a pair of missed free throws by Dordt with 40 seconds left to set up another 3-pointer by Linster with 30 seconds left to tie the game at 52.
Both teams missed field goals in the final 21 seconds, but the Defenders took a defensive rebound the length of the floor and drew a foul on a layup attempt to set up the game winning free throw.
"So many things didn't click for the first 38 (minutes)," said coach
Tim Hays. "This has been one of those teams from Day 1 this year that had the character and the heart to overcome adversity and even in those final timeouts we kept saying how we were going to find a way and they believed that."
Southeastern trailed 28-27 at halftime despite outshooting the Defenders 44% to 34%. However, the Defenders held the advantage in rebounding at 22-16 and held the Fire to just one offensive rebound in the first 20 minutes.
"We just didn't come out and execute the way we normally would," said Hays. "It's really hard because we saw our team out there and knew we could be the best team in the country and go out and win this thing, but at this time of the year, you have to put that together. Unfortunately for the bulk of the game, we just did not execute well."
Dordt scored the first six points of the third period to take a seven-point lead with just under 7:00 to play but was answered by a 6-0 run by SEU to get within a point at 34-33.
Haley Howarth scored four of her eight points on the night during that span of 1:56. A layup by
Rebecca Cook got the deficit down to one again with 1:53 to play but the Defenders closed with the last five points of the period to lead 43-37.
The deficit hit nine with 8:23 left, but the Fire stayed in it with a 6-2 run to get the game back to 48-43 with 6:22 left.
Angela Perry led the Fire with 12 points and had two rebounds and three blocks. Linster finished with nine points.
Rebecca Cook had a team-high nine boards to go along with her eight points and two assists.
Ashtyn Veerbeek and Karly Gustafson each posted double-doubles for Dordt.
