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Game notes
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Siloam Springs bracket information
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PDF of 64-team tournament bracket
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NAIA's story about the tournament field
NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of
Louisiana will visit John Brown at 6 p.m. CDT Friday in the 2024 NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship Opening Round
presented by Ballogy.
The Gold Nuggets — 25-6 and the Red River Athletic Conference
regular-season and tournament runner-up — are a No. 14 seed.
They earned the second of the Red River's two automatic tournament bids.
John Brown's Golden Eagles — 28-3, a No. 3 seed, the Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament
champion and 13th in the final coaches poll — also earned an automatic bid.
The first-ever XULA-John Brown meeting
in this sport will be played in 1,800-seat Bill George Arena in Siloam Springs, Ark.,
30 miles west of Fayetteville and near the Oklahoma border.
No. 6 seed/16th-ranked Indiana Tech (28-3)
and No. 11 St. Thomas (Fla.) (21-8) will meet in the other first-round game at 8 p.m. Friday,
and that winner will play the XULA-John Brown winner at 4 p.m. Saturday for the right to advance
to the NAIA National Championship final site presented by Bomgaars March 21-26 at Sioux City, Iowa.
This is XULA's first appearance at nationals since 2022,
its third appearance in the last four seasons and 23rd appearance in the last 30 seasons.
All-RRAC players
Taylor Dewitt (12.8 points, 5.8 rebounds per game),
Jaleah LaFargue (5.7 points, 2.7 assists, two steals) and
Zaria Harleaux (7.7 points, 5.6 rebounds)
are among the Gold Nuggets' top players.
John Brown's Tarrah Stephens, a 5-foot-11 forward and graduate student,
was announced March 1 as Sooner Player of the Year. Stephens averages 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocked shots.
A year ago Stephens earned second-team NAIA All-America.
Both teams are stellar defensively. XULA
ranks sixth out of 228 NAIA teams with 53.6 points allowed per game, and John Brown is fourth at 51.8.
