OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 25, 2014) – It's become quite predictable for Oklahoma Christian since joining the Heartland Conference – because OC's opponents in Saturday games don't have to play a Thursday game, unlike OC, they often are fresher and start fast against the Lady Eagles.
But also becoming predictable is this – the Lady Eagles close even faster. It happened again Saturday, as OC won its fifth straight conference game, and its fourth straight game overall, rallying with a huge second half to beat St. Mary's (Texas) 75-66.
McKenzie Stanford had 14 points, Emma Gade and Sydney Hill each had 13 and Roz Hamilton had nine – surpassing the career 1,000-point mark in the process – for OC (10-7, 6-4 Heartland), which moved within a half-game of fourth place in the conference standings after an 0-3 league start. St. Mary's (13-4, 8-3) is in third place, three games behind league-leading Lubbock Christian (Texas).
The win capped a 4-0 homestand for the Lady Eagles, which also included a win over the conference's second-place team, Texas A&M International.
"I really like where we're at as far as a confidence level," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "It's a job for me during the year to figure out who's going to play where and the best spot for everybody. We're just now kind of ironing all of those issues out and getting everybody healthy.
"Different people are stepping in and playing their role and providing us with something when they do. The second half, some people came in and provided us with a lot of energy. That was my challenge at halftime was the energy level. … We picked the energy up after halftime."
St. Mary's, which reached the NCAA Division II tournament last season, sprinted to leads of 11-3 and 20-9 against the Lady Eagles. The Rattlers led 23-14 after Jackie Woods scored with 8:59 left in the first half, but OC tied the game with a 9-0 run.
Three 3-pointers in a 2½-minute span by Danielle Vargas helped rebuilt the St. Mary's lead and the Rattlers led 32-25 at halftime, but that proved to the their best shot.
OC opened the second half on a 10-3 run, highlighted by 3-pointers by Hill and Gade, to tie the game at 35-35. Consecutive 3-pointers by Kyra Littlejohn and Dezirae Elias put St. Mary's back ahead 50-47 with 9:51 left, but Elias' basket was the last by the Rattlers for more than five minutes.
Jasmine Hinton, Hamilton and Gade hit 3-pointers in an 11-0 run as OC seized control, but it might have been the 2-point basket in that stretch – on which Hill caught a lob pass from Makenzie Brown and scored a layup – that was the most impressive play of the night for OC.
Throwing that pass was the specific reason Brown was in the game, Findley said.
"She makes that pass better than anyone, so I trust her to get in there and do it," Findley said of Brown. "She got in there and did her job and I felt like that sparked us with a little bit of energy off that play. Then Emma hit a three right after that, which helped us pull away a little bit from them and that gives you some energy when you start pulling away."
After St. Mary's hit a free throw, Gade hit another 3-pointer with 6 minutes left to extend OC's lead to double digits at 61-51. St. Mary's rallied within 69-64 in the final minute but Stanford sealed the win for OC with a three-point play with 45.9 seconds left. The Lady Eagles shot 57.7 percent (15 of 26) from the field in the second half.
Hamilton not only became the 27th OC player to surpass the 1,000-point career mark, she also grabbed 11 rebounds as the Lady Eagles outrebounded the Rattlers 43-37 – a stat which allowed OC to overcome 26 turnovers.
Morgan Pullins led St. Mary's with 13 points while Elias had 12. The Rattlers hurt themselves at the free-throw line, shooting 55 percent (11 of 20), while OC shot 65.5 percent (19 of 29).
