Lindenwood produced basically a repeat of their March 27 defeat of BYU in taking down the Cougars in the D1 Elite semis Saturday.

That March game ended 77-5, this time around it was 74-7. The Lions continue to be enormously difficult to stop, moving the ball quickly, with their forwards giving their backs plenty of time to make decisions and execute, and punishing turnovers repeatedly.

And they have added to that an attitude. They take nothing for granted. As Head Coach Billy Nicholas said before the game: 

"For us to do well we need to play in the moment," Nicholas said. "It's tough not to get ahead of yourself and start thinking about the result before the kickoff even begins—we just want everyone to enjoy the experience, have fun and play to our potential."

That they did, and while the score was 67 points in Lindenwood's favor, taking the Cougars lightly would have been a bad idea.

"BYU really challenged us in the first twenty minutes with a few well-put-together passages of play," said Nicholas. "We were a bit too loose with some decisions out of the gates and that led into some ball handling issues that didn’t help us early on. I think that checked us a bit going into half and emphasize getting back to our game plan. BYU has some great players and they’ve got the ability to challenge anyone. 

"We were happy to be able to get our finishers on with plenty of time left and come out with a team win on the day. We'll focus on the recovery, have a look at film and will be excited to get to host the national championship in two weeks time."

So now it's on to the final, as Lindenwood meets their longtime rivals Life University, who beat Central Washington earlier on Saturday>>.