TULSA, Okla. (March 7, 2019) – For all Oklahoma Christian did right on Thursday afternoon – and there was plenty – the Lady Eagles weren't able to finish off a postseason basketball game they controlled for long stretches.

Second-seeded Newman (Kan.) outscored OC 15-0 in the last 2:38 and – propelled by a huge advantage at the free-throw line – scored a 68-59 win over the Lady Eagles in the Heartland Conference Championship tournament quarterfinals at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center.

Newman (20-9) advanced to a semifinal game on Friday while seventh-seeded OC (12-16) will reflect on the remarkable career of Heartland player of the year Addy Clift, which ended with the loss.

Thanks to Katie Mayo (18 points, 12 rebounds) and Carolyne Lawley (10 rebounds), OC outrebounded the Jets 46-29 and led by 11 points in the third quarter and six points after a 3-pointer by Maddison Collyer with 2:50 left, but didn't score again.

The Lady Eagles hurt themselves with 25 turnovers and shot just 35.4 percent (23 of 65) from the field, offsetting strong performances by Collyer – who scored 19 points, her second-highest total this season – and Mayo, who posted her sixth double-double of the season.

"It was a hard-fought game," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "I was really proud of my girls' effort. I think we played hard. I was hoping it would pay off in the end, but clearly it did not.

"We had a lot of turnovers today which hurt us. Sometimes those are because we're going too fast and sometimes it's because the other team's making a play and sometimes it's because you get bumped and lose control."

Newman's biggest edge came in free throws. OC, which had shot more free throws during the regular season than any other Heartland team, had just nine opportunities against Newman, making seven. Newman, meanwhile, shot 30 free throws, making 25, including a 10-of-10 performance by Bria DeGrate, who scored 18 points. Twenty of those free throws came in the final 12:11 of the game.

Clift fed Shelton for a fast-break layup in the closing seconds of the second quarter to give OC a 26-24 halftime lead. With the game tied early in the third quarter, Mayo fueled a 16-5 run by the Lady Eagles, scoring 11 points in that stretch. Shelton's 3-pointer with 1:56 left in the quarter put OC up 42-31.

But Newman began rallying, between frequent trips to the line and the 3-point shooting of Kaitlyn Potter. She hit two 3-pointers and the Jets went 6 of 6 from the line in a 2½-minute span that pulled them within 42-41 with 9:49 left in the game.

OC rebuilt its lead to six points before Newman again cut the gap to one points at 52-51 on a basket by DeGrate with 3:55 left. A driving layup by Clift and the 3-pointer by Collyer pushed the OC lead to 59-53, but Newman answered with two quick trips to the line – going 4 of 4 – before Potter put them ahead 60-59 with a 3-pointer with 1:37 left.

The Lady Eagles eventually were forced to foul to extend the game and Dede Johnson went 6 of 6 from the line in the final 29.5 seconds to seal the win for Newman.

"I make everybody around me work, whether it's the officials, my boss – everybody around me works," Newman coach Darin Spence said. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. We don't get caught up in stats. We never talk about those things. My key … to every game is when the final buzzer sounds, we need one more point than the other team. It doesn't matter how you do it."

Clift, a senior from Kiowa, scored 12 points to end her career with 2,104, a scoring total that ranks fifth all-time in OC history and first among guards. Her name long will be sprinkled throughout the OC and Heartland record books. In the conference this season, she obliterated the career, single-season and single-game scoring marks and set records in free-throw shooting and 3-point shooting.

She entered the game leading NCAA Division II in per-game scoring and ranked fourth on Division II's active career scoring list. She finished the season averaging 26.4 points per game – an OC and Heartland record – and scored 739 points in 28 games, setting the Heartland record and finishing second on OC's single-season list behind only four-time NAIA All-American Julie Ross, who scored 768 points while playing in 34 games during the 1981-82 season.

Findley was teary-eyed when talking about Clift after the game, but soon launched into a long soliloquy.

"I can't talk about Addy without getting emotional," she said, pausing for a long moment before resuming. "She is the most unassuming, humble kid and some of the comments … made to her out on the floor are unfair. She's the nicest kid in this league. She doesn't really care if she scores, but she can, so she does.

"She is blessed. She can run all day. She never gets tired. She comes in early in the morning every day and shoots by herself, for minutes to hours. Whatever free time she's got in the morning, she's in the gym shooting. Nobody rebounds for her. She doesn't use a shooting machine. She just shoots and fetches and shoots and fetches and dribbles and dribbles and dribbles and dribbles. She has developed herself over four years into the player that she is. I only hope the rest of my team can see that, and I know they do, and emulate that. She has left that legacy for them.

"I get defensive about her because I hear other coaches pick at the fact that she's 'getting calls' or that she's carrying the ball. I feel like that happened more and more and more and more as the season went on. I feel like it was unfair to treat another team's star player like that. I get defensive about it. … She did all of this, she averaged almost 27 points a game, with everybody double-teaming her and everybody triple-teaming her and everybody pulling her jersey out of her shorts when she comes off of a screen. And she still did it.

"Thankfully, she was rewarded last night with the player-of-the-year honor. … The conference validated her for me and I appreciate that. I am glad for that because she deserved it. She really deserved it. … She didn't get to the line today and that's where a lot of her points come from and that's why coaches lobby against it."

Clift also struggled with her emotions when discussing how much playing at OC has meant to her.

"I grew up going to Cage Camp all my life and I knew I wanted to play at the college level," Clift said. "All of the relationships I've got to form over the last four years and the level I've got to play at – I love playing. It's been really a big blessing for me in my life. God has been very good to me and to this team this year."

OC postgame press conference: https://youtu.be/-cuOeZFS_9Q