TULSA, Okla. (Feb. 28, 2018) – There's little secret how Oklahoma Christian's women's basketball team likes to play – the Lady Eagles want to get up and down the court and speed up the tempo.

Which is the opposite of what Newman (Kan.) – OC's quarterfinal opponent in the Heartland Conference Championship tournament – wants. The fourth-seeded Jets play a methodical, physical brand of hoops, trying to slow opposing teams down and keep the score low.

The contrast in styles will be on display in the first postseason meeting between the teams, which will start at 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center in Tulsa. The winner is all but certain to earn a semifinal berth opposite top-seeded, No. 2-ranked Lubbock Christian (Texas) on Saturday.

It's the third straight year in which fifth-seeded OC (9-17) will be a part of the 4-5 matchup at the conference tournament and coach Stephanie Findley is ready to come out on the right end in 2018 after falling to St. Mary's (Texas) two years ago and Arkansas-Fort Smith last year.

"We're not new any more," Findley said. "Our freshmen are sophomores, now, basically, because they've played a whole season. They know it's going to be physical. If we can step and and make shots, we can play with anybody."

The game will feature the conference's top two scorers in OC guard Addy Clift (21.2 points per game) and Newman guard Hannah Alexander (17.9 ppg).

Clift has been on a serious roll over her team's last three games, pouring in 103 points – including 35 against Lubbock Christian and 40 on the road against league runner-up Arkansas-Fort Smith. She's had a 17-point quarter vs. Lubbock Christian and an 18-point quarter at Rogers State during that stretch.

The junior guard from Kiowa won the Heartland player-of-the-week award five out of a possible 14 times this season. She ranks 11^th in NCAA Division II in scoring and also leads the Heartland in free-throw percentage (82.8) and 3-pointers per game (3.1). She's the only Division II player this season to record multiple 40-point games.

"She is getting the calls and getting to the line," Findley said. "I think she's deserved those calls all season but she's just now getting them.

"She is getting a lot more consistent and playing maybe a little looser and not stressing about it as much that people are going to cover her. She's had to face it all season now – people are going to cover her tight and try to keep her from scoring. It's a tiring thought to think that you've got to work every play to get an open shot but she's starting to figure it out."

Alexander excels in the pick-and-roll and often plays bigger than her listed height of 5-foot-9. She's also an outstanding free-throw shooter who's capable of knocking down the 3-pointer.

Newman's second offensive option often is junior guard Bria DeGrate, who averages 10.3 points per game. The Jets place a high priority on defense, as they have limited foes to an average of 61.1 points per game this season. Their plus-9.6 scoring margin ranks second in the Heartland.

"Newman is just so balanced," Findley said. "Their guards are pretty big. They're all about the same size. They're thicker and stronger that we are, so we've got to figure out a way to offset that."

OC holds an 11-4 series lead against Newman, but two of those wins for the Jets have come this season – 91-76 in Oklahoma City on Dec. 2 and 70-67 in Wichita on Jan. 27. The latter game ended in controversy, as OC trailed by one point in the final seconds when a Newman defender bumped OC guard Maddison Collyer out of bounds as she drove toward the basket, but officials instead ruled that Collyer had stepped out of bounds on her own.

Findley said finding scorers other than Clift will be important and the coach is encouraged to see two freshmen from OC's ballyhooed recruiting class, Collyer and forward Katie Mayo, rise to that challenge in recent games, along with senior Audrey Hayes.

"We need other people to knock down shots and stay hot," Findley said. "The team that can stay the hottest is going to win this time of year. We hope that we're all maturing and growing into that and have a little run left in us here at the end of the season."

The Lady Eagles will need to focus on rebounding, controlling turnovers and successfully defending Newman's ball screens on Friday, Findley said.

"We're doing a better job of rebounding now than we were earlier in the year," she said. "We're going to have to rebound and not give them second and third chances. They run a lot of ball screens and fare well with it. We have to limit our turnovers and control our lapses on defense."

The other quarterfinal game Friday will pit third-seeded St. Mary's (Texas) against sixth-seeded Rogers State at 7:30 p.m. The Thursday quarterfinals will match Arkansas-Fort Smith against seventh-seeded St. Edward's (Texas) at 2:30 p.m. and Lubbock Christian against eighth-seeded Texas A&M International at 7:30 p.m.