FORT SMITH, Ark. (Feb. 1, 2020) – A foul call on a scramble play in the final second of regulation gave Arkansas-Fort Smith the opportunity to force overtime, and once there, the Lions seized the lead and held on to beat Oklahoma Christian 91-89 on Saturday afternoon at the Stubblefield Center.

OC (6-12, 6-8 Lone Star Conference) rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit to lead 73-68 on a basket with 3:36 left in regulation by senior guard Megan Shelton, who hit 10 of 15 shots and scored a career-high 26 points. UAFS (10-10, 7-7) took a 76-75 lead on a free throw by Hannah Boyett with 2:08 left, but Katie Mayo knocked down two free throws with 1:26 left to put OC back on top.

The Lady Eagles put together two defensive stops, forcing UAFS to foul, and Maddison Collyer – who scored 20 points – split a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left to extend OC's lead to 78-76.

Alexsis Brown missed a jumper with :05 left and during the ensuing scramble for the loose ball, officials ruled Collyer had fouled Ashanti Eden while Eden was shooting with four-tenths of a second left. Eden made the first two free throws to tie the game but missed the third.

In OT, Mayo was called for her fifth foul just seven seconds in and Mar'Shalia Lollie hit two free throws to put UAFS ahead for good. The Lions never led by more than four points, though, and were up only 86-85 after Kendra Levings hit a 3-pointer for OC with 25 seconds left.

Brown hit two free throws with 14 seconds left before Carolyne Lawley scored with :06 left, pulling OC within 88-87. Eden made two more free throws with 7.4 seconds left and Levings (who had 14 points) scored on a driving layup with :01 left. She quickly fouled Brown, but only one-tenth of a second remained. Brown split a pair of free throws for the final margin.

By game's end, three OC players – Mayo, Collyer and Kendall Blackburn – all had fouled out for OC, while UAFS had only one player foul out.

"I'm really not sure what happened at the end, but I feel like we shot the ball well today," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "We just did not take care of the ball against their pressure and had a couple of unfortunate plays right at the end of regulation. Not to mention, we missed some free throws at the end of regulation, too, which left the door open for them."

Both teams were turnover-prone – OC had 23, UAFS had 20. The Lady Eagles shot 50.9 percent (28 of 55) from the field compared to 41.8 percent (28 of 67) for UAFS, but the Lions went 9 of 21 from 3-point range (including 4 of 9 by Boyett) while OC was 6 of 15.

Leiloni Culley scored 22 points to lead the Lions, while Lollie had 17 points and 11 rebounds and Boyett had 13 points. The win gave the Lions a split of the season series with OC, which beat UAFS 74-63 on Dec. 14 in Oklahoma City.

In the LSC women's basketball standings, UAFS moved up a spot, into a tie for ninth with St. Edward's (Texas), while OC fell one spot into a tie for 11th with Midwestern State (Texas). The top 12 teams in the 18-team league will advance to the LSC postseason tournament.

OC and Midwestern State are 1½ games ahead of Texas-Permian Basin and the Lady Eagles will visit UTPB on Thursday before playing at Western New Mexico next Saturday.