DENTON, Texas (Nov. 18, 2018) – After what had been a 15-point second-half lead over Texas Woman's had dwindled to one with six minutes left, Oklahoma Christian coach
Stephanie Findley called a timeout. Who the Lady Eagles went to in that situation, and the result, should surprise no OC fan.
Senior All-America guard
Addy Clift buried one 3-pointer, then another 35 seconds later, and capped a 29-point outing with six free throws in as many attempts in the final 4:24 as OC held on for a 78-69 win on Sunday afternon in the Hilton Garden Inn Pioneer Classic at TWU's Kitty Magee Arena.
It was the third win this season for OC (3-2) over a Lone Star Conference foe, with all of those coming away from home.
Texas Woman's (1-3) led by as many as four points in the first quarter before OC took a 22-21 edge by quarter's end. The Lady Eagles trailed 29-26 midway through the second quarter but seized control with a 15-2 run to end the half, fueled by two 3-pointers by freshman
Kendra Levings in the final 1:20, to go up 44-31.
A layup by
Katie Mayo (who had 16 points) with 6:26 left in the third quarter gave OC its biggest lead at 51-36, although the Pioneers rallied within 59-50 by the end of the quarter. The Lady Eagles went scoreless for the first four minutes of the fourth quarter and Texas Woman's pulled within 59-58 on two free throws by London Archer with 6:01 left.
Clift's two 3-pointers ended the OC drought and Texas Woman's came no closer than four points the rest of the way. The Lady Eagles went 11 of 14 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Clift represented OC on the all-tournament team. Her 29 points increased her career total to 1,488 points. That moved her into 10th place on both the OC and Heartland career scoring lists. On the OC list, she moved past Tasha Turney, who had 1,461 points from 2002-06. Now known as Tasha Diesselhorst, she's the current coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State, which will host OC on Tuesday night in Alva.
On the Heartland list, Clift passed Tammy Acosta, who scored 1,476 points for Texas-Permian Basin from 2008-12. Clift is 290 points away from becoming the Heartland's career scoring leader.
Carissa Moody led Texas Woman's with 26 points and 12 rebounds, while Bri'Anna Gray scored 12 points and Archer had 11 points and 12 rebounds. But the Pioneers shot just 31.1 percent (19 of 61) from the field) compared to 41.3 percent (26 of 63) for OC. OC also had only nine turnovers, while the Pioneers had 17.