TULSA, Okla. (March 6, 2019) – You can hear it the voice of Oklahoma Christian coach Stephanie Findley. After a long season, she's tired, but she's also ready to seize the opportunity presented by the Heartland Conference Championship women's basketball tournament.

OC (12-15) might be the seventh seed in the eight-team tournament, but figures to have as good a shot as anyone else outside of top-seeded Lubbock Christian (Texas) to win and advance to the NCAA Division II tournament.

As evidence of the parity within the Heartland, the Lady Eagles split their regular-season games against their quarterfinal opponent, second-seeded Newman (Kan.), winning 85-81 at Newman on Jan. 24 and dropping a controversial 86-81 decision at home on Feb. 2 in the Eagles' Nest.

OC and Newman (19-9) will play the Heartland tournament opener at noon Thursday at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center.

"It is nice that we've had two close games with them and we split, so we know we can be right there," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "We just haven't been playing well overall these last three weeks, which is not one of the trademarks of my teams. We usually are playing pretty good at this time of year but we're not right now.

"We've got to find our mojo that we had going early when we beat all those tough teams. We've got to dig deep for three games for stamina, concentration and consistency. If we can find it, we're starting out this new season. Everybody is 0-0. If we could start this season like we did the regular season, we'll be in business."

OC is dangerous for many reasons. The Lady Eagles have the best player in the Heartland – and one of the best in Division II – in senior guard Addy Clift. The newly minted Heartland player of the year leads Division II in scoring at 26.9 points per game and has scored more than 30 points in 11 games. Clift set the Heartland career, single-season and single-game scoring records this season.

The Lady Eagles also have the Heartland's second-leading scorer in sophomore forward Katie Mayo (16.1 ppg) and lead the league in offense at 79.5 points per game.

In addition to the win at Newman, OC also downed two other regionally ranked foes this season – Lone Star Conference power Eastern New Mexico and Heartland rival St. Mary's (Texas). The latter game, a 51-point rout, came with St. Mary's just a week removed from being in the national top 25. OC went 3-1 this season against teams that made the Lone Star's postseason tournament.

Newman closed the regular season by winning seven of its last eight games, including an upset of Lubbock Christian in Wichita, albeit with a bizarre ending that favored the Jets. Even so, the Jets are on the outside looking in when it comes to the NCAA's all-important South Central Region rankings, which determine the at-large participants for the Division II tournament. Newman is No. 9 this week and the top eight make the national tournament.

The Jets are led by senior guard Bria DeGrate, a first-team All-Heartland pick who averages 14.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and long-range sharpshooter Kaitlyn Potter, a junior guard who averages 13.4 points per game and has hit 95 3-pointers this season, setting a new Heartland single-season record. She made the All-Heartland second-team list.

Newman's strength is its depth, as the Jets have eight players who average between 16 to 30 minutes per game.

"They're winning close games," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "That's the difference between championship seasons and average seasons, when you win close games. They play a lot of people, so they can afford foul trouble, because they go pretty deep into their bench. That's probably helped them down the stretch. They're just playing good."

This will be the second straight season in which OC and Newman have played in the Heartland tournament quarterfinals. Newman won both regular-season matchups in 2017-18, but OC won 83-72 in the postseason.

Lubbock Christian has been the Heartland's dominant team in recent seasons, winning the Division II title in 2016 and reaching the Elite Eight in 2018. The Chaparrals enter this year's tournament ranked No. 25 and again figure to be the favorite, but the loss to Newman has given the rest of the league hope.

The other women's quarterfinal on Thursday will feature Lubbock Christian (23-5) vs. eighth-seeded Texas A&M International (0-26). The Friday quarterfinals will pit third-seeded St. Mary's (17-9) against sixth-seeded Arkansas-Fort Smith (10-17) and fourth-seeded Rogers State (14-13) vs. fifth-seeded St. Edward's (Texas) (15-13).

The OC-Newman winner will play the St. Mary's-UAFS winner at 5 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The title game will be played at noon Sunday.