John Brown University will open play in the NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship Opening Round on Friday.
The Lady Eagles, winners of the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles, will play Xavier (La.) at 6 p.m. at Bill George Arena. John Brown University is 28-3. Xavier is 25-6. Xavier is the Red River Athletic Tournament runnerup.
JBU is on a 26-game winning streak and was 12-0 at home during the regular season. Tarrah Stephens leads JBU in scoring at 16.5 points a game. Shylia McGee leads Xavier at 11.7 points a game.
The second game at 8 p.m. Friday will feature Indiana Tech (28-3) against St. Thomas (Fla.), 21-8.
Indiana Tech is the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic regular season champion. St. Thomas from the Sun Conference received an at-large qualifier bid.
Erika Foy paces Indiana Tech at 18.6 points a game. Brooke Bogatz leads St. Thomas in scoring at 15.3 points a game.
The championship game will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at Bill George Arena.
John Brown University is the No. 3 seed in the Liston Quadrant. Other opening-round sites in the quadrant are Sioux Center, Iowa, and Salina and Wichita, Kan. Dordt (Iowa) is the No. 1 seed in the quadrant.
The other quadrants are the Cramer, Duer and Naismith. Each quadrant has 16 teams.
The winner of each 0pening round bracket will advance to the final site in Sioux City, Iowa. The Round of 16 play begins March 21 at the Tyson Events Center.
Since the NAIA merged into one division (2018-19) and expanded the tournament field to 64 teams, John Brown has qualified once -- last season -- and registered the tournament's largest upset in knocking off No. 9 Loyola (La.), the bracket's number four overall seed. JBU fell in the Round of 32 to upstart Cumberlands (Ky.) in the New Orleans bracket final game.