OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 11, 2020) – Since Tyra Peck scored 25 points in the season opener, Oklahoma Christian basketball coach Stephanie Findley has been pushing for her junior guard to take an increased offensive role for the Eagles.

That encouragement seems to be taking effect. Peck poured in a career-high 28 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, as OC pulled away late for a 60-53 win over Texas Woman's on Saturday afternoon in the Eagles' Nest.

The win, which snapped a five-game losing streak for OC (4-9, 4-5 Lone Star Conference), was the 800th in the history of OC's women's program, which began competition with the 1977-78 season. OC has an all-time record of 800-525 during those 43 seasons.

OC trailed Texas Woman's (5-8, 3-6) for much of the first half, but held the Pioneers without a field goal for more than 11 minutes during the second half. That allowed the Lady Eagles to go on an 18-1 run and allowed them to build a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. Peck started that run with a 3-pointer and ended it with a traditional three-point play that put OC ahead 52-40 with 2:35 left.

"We've been wondering, after the first game of the year, how do we get (Peck) to keep going on that pace?" Findley said. "It's hard to keep that pace up, obviously, but we've just asked her to be more aggressive and she's listening. The last few games, she's tried to be more aggressive getting to the goal, looking for her shot, taking the open three.

"Today, it looked like she was very intent on getting to the goal and that was getting her to the free-throw line. It's just a matter of letting her know what we want her to do and she's trying to do it. She's a very unselfish player, so it's not her nature, so we had to stay on her about being aggressive."

The Lady Eagles didn't shoot a great percentage, going 15 of 42 (35.7 percent) from the field, but they hit 23 of 29 free-throw attempts (79.3 percent), including 13 of 15 by Peck. They also limited Texas Woman's to 30.8-percent shooting (20 of 65), including 9 of 35 (25.7 percent) in the second half.

Texas Woman's led by as many as seven points in the first half, the last time at 24-17 on a basket by Kam Daily with 4:48 left in the half. OC tied the game with a 9-2 spurt but trailed 29-28 at halftime.

The Pioneers led 39-34 after a 3-pointer by Amaya Briggs with 3:20 left in the third quarter, but they didn't record another basket until Macy Wilkerson's 3-pointer with 2:16 left in the game. In between, they missed 18 straight shots.

"I'm obviously not a coach that just likes to run one defense," Findley said. "I think it's hard for me to prepare for multiple defenses, so I hope it's hard for the other coaches to prepare for multiple defenses. I just like to change it up and not be doing the same thing all the time and throw different things at them to try and keep them off balance."

Katie Mayo, who had seven points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots for OC, put the Lady Eagles ahead at 41-39 with 27 seconds left in the third quarter and OC never trailed again. Peck went 6 of 6 from the free-throw line in the final 63 seconds of the game to keep the Pioneers at bay.

"We were coming off a bunch of losses, and that was our motivation tonight," Peck said. "We were just trying to get on a run. I think that was a lot of it. We were ready to get a win under our belt."

Megan Shelton added 12 points for OC. Wilkerson led the Pioneers with 13 points and six rebounds, while London Archer scored 10 points.

With her three blocks, Mayo, a junior forward, increased her career total to 100. She became only the fifth OC player to record at least 100 blocks in her career, joining Lindsay Wilson (472 from 1998-2002), Charlotte Heron (157 from 2005-09), Sarah Reese (114 from 1999-2002) and Roz Hamilton (111 from 2009-14).

OC will go back on the road next week for games Thursday at a pair of LSC division rivals – NCAA Division II newcomer Texas-Tyler on Thursday and No. 5-ranked Texas A&M-Commerce on Saturday.

Game highlights: https://youtu.be/imhoefV14os