OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 16, 2014) – Freshman post player McKenzie Stanford and junior forward Emma Gade are making themselves right at home in the starting lineup for Oklahoma Christian.
For the second time in three games, Stanford set a new career high in scoring, pouring in 21 points and adding five assists as OC downed Oklahoma Panhandle State 86-71 on Thursday night in the Eagles' Nest.
Gade, another recent addition to the starting lineup, also set a new career scoring high with 16 points and seven rebounds as five Lady Eagles reached double figures in scoring.
Gade hit three of her eight 3-point attempts while Stanford went 9 of 17 from the field while eclipsing the 19-point outing she had earlier this month in a win at Rogers State.
Stanford "had a really good game and it was Emma's first game to start at home and she hit a couple of threes," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "That's her strength and we need to get her going on that. A lot of teams have been playing us some zone (defense) … so we've got to start knocking down those threes against the zone and Emma is a player who can do that for us."
OC (7-7, 3-4 Heartland Conference) led by double digits – or close to it – for most of the final 27 minutes but wasn't able to completely pull away from Oklahoma Panhandle State (1-15, 1-9) until the game's final moments. Two players kept the Aggies close – Sarah Johnson, who had 22 points and seven assists, and Hannah Tatum, who scored 20 points.
"It was a comfortable lead, but you kept thinking that the way (Johnson) was shooting, that she could bring them back at any moment if we had a couple of empty possessions on offense," Findley said. "It was important for us to go down and try to execute and get something good and then we had to start double-teaming her and running somebody at her."
The Aggies led 17-15 midway through the first half after a jumper by Brittany Alavinejad, but Gade started a 10-0 run for OC with a 3-pointer and a three-point play by Krista Stevens put the Lady Eagles ahead 25-17 with 8:30 left before halftime.
OC pushed its lead to 14 points before settling for a 34-24 halftime advantage. Panhandle State never made a serious run in the second half, although the Aggie did pull within seven points on two occasions, the latter at 63-56 on Alavinejad's steal and layup with 10:27 left.
A quick 6-1 push by the Lady Eagles rebuilt their lead and Panhandle State came no closer than eight points the rest of the way. Gade capped an 8-0 run with a 3-pointer with 1:23 to give the Lady Eagles their biggest advantage of the game at 84-67.
Logan McKee scored 11 points and went 6 of 6 from the free-throw line to burnish her credentials as one of the best in the NCAA Division II ranks in that category. Stevens and Roz Hamilton added 10 points each. Jasmine Hinton hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored eight points in eight minutes for the Lady Eagles.
The win started the Lady Eagles off right on what could be a critical four-game homestand. OC will host Newman (Kan.) on Saturday, then Texas A&M International and St. Mary's (Texas) next week.
"We need to get all four of these if we can, because we've been kind of win one, lose one, win one, lose one," Findley said. "We need to get on a roll here going down toward the end of the season. That's when you want to start peaking and playing your best and I think we will."
