OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 30, 2021) – Two old bugaboos cost Oklahoma Christian in a big way on Saturday afternoon against Arkansas-Fort Smith.
OC committed 22 turnovers and allowed the Lions 15 offensive boards, the combination of which caused the Eagles to fall behind early and kept them from catching up in a 71-65 loss in the Eagles' Nest.
OC (4-4, 4-4 Lone Star Conference) still split its two-game set with Arkansas-Fort Smith (3-6, 3-6), having won in Fort Smith, Ark., on Thursday, but missed an opportunity for what would have been its first regular-season sweep of UAFS since the teams began playing regularly with the 2012-13 basketball season.
Freshman forward
Brooklin Bain, the hero in Thursday's win, posted her third career double-double in only eight games, leading OC with 25 points and 11 rebounds while drawing a whopping 12 fouls. But the Lady Eagles hit only 7 of 26 3-point attempts (26.9 percent), compared to 10 of 24 (41.7 percent) for Arkansas-Fort Smith. That proved to be the difference.
"They're a good 3-point shooting team and they got some help from some people who aren't their regular shooters to knock down some threes, which then opens it up even more, because you have to get out and cover those people," OC coach
Stephanie Findley said. "They starting hitting threes and we were not. … We just were struggling to get the ball in the hole."
Playing only its second home game of the season – and their first since Dec. 7 – OC looked strong in the first quarter, jumping to an 11-point lead and leading 20-11 at quarter's end.
But the Lady Eagles scored only 12 second-quarter points and UAFS went ahead for good at 32-30 on a 3-pointer by Dachelle Terry with 3:32 left in the first half. The Lions led 36-32 at halftime, having recorded 12 offensive rebounds to that point.
"We didn't handle the ball well either," Findley said. "We had way too many turnovers, so that's something we've got to work on. The first half we gave them 12 offensive boards … it was like we gave them 25 extra possessions in the first half and that's how we lost that lead. It started out great but fell apart, but that's how basketball is."
Bain hit two free throws – she went 11 of 15 from the line – a minute into the second half, but the Lions answered with three straight 3-pointers, two from Hannah Boyett and another from Terry, to extend their lead to 45-34.
The Lady Eagles fought the uphill battle the rest of the way. OC closed within 62-60 when
Kendall Blackburn – playing in her first game since Dec. 7 – hit two free throws with 2:04 left, but that was as close as the Lady Eagles came. Arkansas-Fort Smith hit 7 of 10 free throws in the final 41 seconds as OC came up empty on three of its last four possessions.
Kendra Levings (12 points) and
Tyra Peck (10 points) were the only other OC players to score in double figures, although Blackburn had nine points in less than 10 minutes of action.
Jasmyn Studamire scored 15 of her team-high 19 points for UAFS in the first half, while Terry added 14 (hitting 3 of 5 3-point attempts) and Boyett had 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Lions outrebounded OC 40-35, helping offset their 20 turnovers.
OC will host nonconference foe Oklahoma Baptist (0-10) on Monday at 6 p.m. It will be the first meeting between OC and OBU – longtime rivals from their days in NAIA's Sooner Athletic Conference – since 2012. The Lady Eagles then will host LSC foe Midwestern State (Texas) for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.
