Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (Dec. 18, 2014) – Oklahoma Christian closed the first half with a flourish against Texas-Permian Basin to take the lead. But that magic disappeared after the Lady Eagles exited the halftime locker room and that cost them dearly.
OC failed to score for the first six minutes of the second half, allowing UTPB to build a 10-point lead, and the Falcons led the rest of the way en route to a 66-53 win on Thursday night in the Heartland Conference opener for both teams.
It was the first win for UTPB (7-2, 1-0 Heartland) over OC in three matches in the Eagles' Nest since OC (3-6, 0-1) joined the conference. The Falcons, who also own a win at last season's NCAA Division II runner-up, West Texas A&M, figure to compete for the Heartland championship, but except for those fateful six minutes, OC played them essentially even-up.
"We came out cold from the dressing room," OC coach
Stephanie Findley said. "Maybe I need to not bring us back to the locker room. We'll just stay out there and shoot some nights, because we were ice cold.
"We couldn't seem to get our offense organized and it seemed like every loose ball bounced off our foot, went off their foot and ended up in their hands. It just went from bad to worse for about six minutes there. I was proud of the girls for fighting through it and coming back a little bit, but that gap, it just kind of stayed there at that point."
UTPB used an 8-0 run to take a 26-18 lead with 6:09 left in the first half and the Falcons were up 31-25 after a basket by Myangel Johnson at the 1:50 mark.
But OC outscored the Falcons 8-1 over the final 97 seconds of the half.
McKenzie Stanford and
Aisha Martin each hit a pair of free throws,
Sydney Hill followed with a layup and Stanford took a perfect inbounds pass from Hill to score and give the Lady Eagles a 33-32 halftime lead.
During OC's cold spell to open the half, UTPB scored 11 straight points and led 43-33 after Trish Simpson scored with 15:49 left.
With her team down 13 points, OC guard
Jasmine Hinton scored six straight points, the last two on a layup with 9:02 left to pull the Lady Eagles within 50-43. UTPB's Giselle Loya answered with a 3-pointer, however, and OC came no closer than eight points after that.
"Jazz can score and she did a good job of penetrating a little bit and pulling up and shooting her jumper," Findley said.
Stanford scored 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and led OC with six rebounds, but Hinton (10 points) was the only other OC player to reach double figures in scoring. The Lady Eagles shot 35.4 percent (17 of 48) from the field and 16.7 percent (2 of 12) from 3-point range.
"We've got to get
McKenzie Stanford some more shots," Findley said. "She's just such a good player, we've got to get more shots for her."
Valerie Barriga led UTPB with 16 points while Loya added 15 points and eight rebounds.
OC will close the first semester on Saturday at 1 p.m., when the Lady Eagles host Heartland rival St. Edward's (Texas).
