Governors State Doubles Up On Its Women's Basketball CCAC Titles

UNIVERSITY PARK, Ill. --- Less than two weeks after securing its first regular-season Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference title, Governors State University made history for a second time by claiming its initial CCAC Women's Basketball Tournament title on Monday night with the Jaguars' 70-64 win over No. 3 seed University of St. Francis before a full house at GSU's Athletics and Recreation Center.

Zareia Chevre sparked the hosts' sixth straight victory with her 38-point, 11-rebound, 2-steal night.  The senior guard/forward hit 11 of her 22 shots from the field, while being perfect at the foul line, going 14-for-14. 

Cencere McDonald also provided 11 rebounds to go along with seven points, while Tabetha Jones pitched in 12 points and eight assists.

St. Francis was led by Le'lani Harris' 28 points and 10 boards.

The Saints (24-7) came out on fire, connecting on 10 of their first 13 shots to take a 24-15 lead at the first stop.  Governors State (26-5) responded by outscoring St. Francis in each of the final three quarters, including a decisive 22-9 in the second quarter to take a 37-33 lead into the halftime break.

USF would not go away in the second half, however, pushing ahead 40-39 at the 6:31 mark of the third quarter before the Jaguars went on an 11-3 run to take the lead for good at 50-43 with 2:34 left in the period.

The Saints would eventually get the deficit down to one point at 63-62 with three minutes to play, but could not break through one last time as GSU outscored the guests 7-2 to close out the contest.

One key statistic for the Jaguars on the night was outscoring USF 20-7 in points off turnovers.  Governors State committed just six turnovers on the night to USF's 15. 

GSU also limited St. Francis to just 12 field goals over the final three quarters after yielding 10 in the opening frame.  Offensively, the Jaguars made good on 18 field goals after the first quarter, where they made just three. 

By virtue of Governors State winning both the regular-season and tournament crowns, second-place regular-season finisher Olivet Nazarene locked up the conference's second automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.

St. Francis as well as a few other CCAC member schools will have to wait until Thursday to see if their seasons continue when the NAIA National Office reveals the full 64-team Opening Round field.

The complete results follow:

Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Game #1: No. 1 seed Governors State 73, No. 8 seed Viterbo 53
Game #2: No. 4 seed Indiana Northwest 77, No. 5 seed Saint Xavier 72 --- OT
Game #3: No. 2 seed Olivet Nazarene 92, No. 7 seed Holy Cross 90
Game #4: No. 3 seed St. Francis 92, No. 6 seed Indiana South Bend 66 

Friday, February 28, 2025 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #5: No. 1 seed Governors State 77, No. 4 seed Indiana Northwest 67
Game #6: No. 3 seed St. Francis 76, No. 2 seed Olivet Nazarene 74

Monday, March 3, 2025 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #7: No. 1 seed Governors State 70, No. 3 seed St. Francis 64