Our series reviewing the numbers put up by last year’s champions continues with the NCAA D2 Women’s Basketball champs, Lubbock Christian. The Lady Chaps finished 32-5 including a thrilling double-overtime championship game win over Southwestern Oklahoma.
Three is the Magic Number
The Lady Chaps made 979 field goals all season, the 5th lowest total for a champion over the last 11 years. But they made 294 three-pointers, the second highest total over that same time span. Emporia State, in 2010 made 313 three-pointers on the way to their title. Lubbock Christian shot nearly 40% on their three-pointers leading to a hefty 56.5% effective field goal percentage, also the second highest number in recent history, topped only by the 2016 version of the Lady Chaps who won it all and were over 60%.
No Second Chances
Well…at least very few second chances. The offensive rebounding percentages, both offensively and defensively were some of the lowest for the last eleven champions. For the Lady Chaps, this makes sense because it’s hard to rebound when you’re shooting so often from the perimeter. That does continue a trend in Division II as last season’s champs, Central Missouri, also had a very low offensive rebounding rate (31.2%).
More impressive was their ability to prevent second chances for their opponents, just 25.2%, bested only by the 24.1% offensive rebounding rate of the 2013 Ashland Eagles.
Block Party
The Lady Chaps had an absurd 155 blocks last season. Lubbock Christian in 2016 had an even higher 235 blocks and Clayton State in 2011 had 163 blocks, those are the only two totals higher among the last eleven champions.
This is also notable because a total of 87 of those blocks came from the Chitsey sisters from Wall, TX. Bobbi graduated but Maddi and her 54 blocks plus 13.8 ppg will be back to help LCU defend their title next season.