BILLINGS, Mont. — MidAmerica Nazarene scored the first nine points and did not relinquish the lead Wednesday in a 72-65 women's basketball victory against Xavier University of Louisiana in the opening round of the NAIA Division I National Championship tournament.
     Jas Hill scored 14 points and Caprice Taylor 13 for the sixth-seeded Gold Nuggets (23-8), the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season champion.
     Kechelle Figueroa, a New Orleanian, scored 17 points, Jovana Jovovic 15 and Whitney Moia 12 and for the third-seeded Pioneers (25-5), who advanced to a 12:30 p.m. MDT second-round game against second-seeded The Master's.
     MNU led 42-25 at halftime after Figueroa heaved in a 3 at the buzzer from about 52 feet, but XULA made it interesting thereafter, winning the third and fourth quarters and limiting the Pioneers to 23.8-percent shooting from the floor. But XULA missed 10 fourth-quarter 3s and finished 6-of-31 (19.4 percent) from behind the arc.
     Freshman Da'Jha Virgil made three 3s for XULA, and she and Essence Wells scored nine points apiece.
     "Started off real slow. Too slow. That was the key to the game. Our offense really struggled the first two quarters," XULA head coach Bo Browder said. "Energy was real good in the second half. Our team played hard. Our defensive pressure caused a lot of turnovers in the second half."