OC senior Katy Clift had 20 points and matched her career high with eight rebounds in an 82-62 loss at No. 15 Southern Nazarene on Saturday.
BETHANY, Okla. (Feb. 18, 2012) – Katy Clift scored 20 points and matched her career high with eight rebounds, but Oklahoma Christian lost 82-62 to No. 15 Southern Nazarene on Saturday afternoon at the Sawyer Center.
OC (9-18, 4-16 Sooner Athletic Conference) committed only five turnovers in the second half and outscored SNU (21-7, 15-5) 38-36 during the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately for the Lady Eagles, that came after SNU built a 46-24 lead on the strength of 50-percent shooting in the first half.
"We'll take some positives from the second half," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "We outrebounded them in the second half. We outscored them. We got ourselves to the free-throw line. We played a good half. We just got ourselves in too deep of a hole in the first half."
Clift, a senior from Kiowa, finished 6-of-13 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line to go with four assists. She tied her rebounding high, set Dec. 2, 2010, against John Brown (Ark.), and played strong defense on Crimson Storm guard Logan Martin, holding SNU's second-leading scorer to eight points, five below her average.
Oumoul Thiam led SNU with 19 points, while Abbey Marra had 16 points and 13 rebounds. Ashley Mantooth had 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting for SNU and Annie Kassongo had eight points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots for the Crimson Storm, who clinched a third-place SAC finish with the win.
OC and SNU were tied 7-7 before the Crimson Storm seized control with a 23-6 run, highlighted by five 3-pointers, including two by Martin. A trey by Kristin Milster put SNU up 30-13 with 8:24 left in the first half and the Crimson Storm pushed that lead to 46-24 by halftime.
SNU took its largest lead to 70-41 with 9:15 left, but Clift scored 11 points – including two three-point plays and a 3-pointer – in a 19-8 run that pulled OC within 78-60 with 1:40 left.
Katy O'Steen and Roz Hamilton each scored 10 points for OC, with Hamilton adding seven rebounds. SNU outrebounded OC 43-36, including 24-13 in the first half. OC shot 36.7 percent from the field (22 of 60) compared to 47.7 percent for SNU (31 of 65). The Crimson Storm went 9-of-20 from 3-point range (45 percent).
The Lady Eagles will close their season next week with the annual Texas Two-Step trip to Lubbock Christian on Thursday and Wayland Baptist on Saturday.
