COMMERCE, Texas (March 1, 2021) – Much of Oklahoma Christian's success this basketball season has been on the road, so the Lady Eagles aren't bothered that they'll be away from home for their Lone Star Conference tournament opener.

Seventh-seeded OC (7-7) will visit nationally ranked and No. 2 seed Texas A&M-Commerce (11-2) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at The Field House at TAMUC. The Lady Eagles know they're the underdogs and they'll be outnumbered, but they long ago accepted those realities and aren't flustered by them.

"You want to win and you want to prove yourself, but it's hard on the road," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "We've been able to overcome that this year and pull out some wins.

"We've been road warriors, so give us some more road games here and let's see what we can do with them. We don't care. We're just trying to extend the season. We didn't get to play a full season, so you're trying to play as many games as you can and finish it off in the right way."

Findley recruited a full 15-player roster for this season, but her squad has been decimated by injuries, many of them season-ending before the campaign even started. Knees, ankles, toes, hips, shoulders – you name the joint, an OC player has injured it.

OC has fluxuated between having six and 10 available players this season and since Nov. 1, there have only been about two weeks when the Lady Eagles were able to go 5-on-5 in practice.

"This is maybe the most injuries I've ever had, and it had to happen during COVID," said Findley, who's in her 36th season as OC's coach. "I don't remember a year when I've lost six people to season-ending injuries."

Still, despite those obstacles, they have managed to record wins at Texas A&M International, Cameron, Angelo State (Texas) and Arkansas-Fort Smith. TAMIU and Cameron are in the eight-team LSC field and UAFS would have been if the Lions had played enough games to qualify.

"We'll have to use everybody we have," Findley said. "It's been a crazy year. You just had to go play who was in front of you. We will go see what we can do on the road again. We've done it this year maybe as much as any other team. … Maybe you just go play whoever's in front of you and don't worry about a scouting report. There's something to be said for overthinking things. Maybe it's been easier to approach the game this year."

Senior point guard Maddison Collyer Ingraham has developed into her team's unquestioned leader over the course of the season and elevated her game to another level in the last couple of weeks. Last season, she set her career scoring high with 24 points in a win over Angelo State, then broke it four days later against St. Mary's (Texas) with 25 points.

Ingraham leads the LSC in both assists (6.2 per game) and minutes played (36.8 per game) and is just seven assists shy of moving past legendary former OC point guard Jan Ross into third place on the program's career list in that statistical category.

OC's other healthy senior is defensive ace Tyra Peck, who Findley calls "the best defender in the conference." She's ninth in the LSC in steals and is a master of playing the angle, creating deflections that often turn into steals for other OC players. Junior guard Kendra Levings ranks sixth in the league in 3-pointers this season with 32 (2.3 per game). Levings and Peck rank third and sixth, respectively, in the LSC in minutes played as Findley often has a short rotation out of necessity.

Forward Brooklin Bain has emerged as the LSC's top freshman, ranking fifth in the league in scoring (15.1 points per game) and third in rebounding (9.4 per game). She's recorded seven double-doubles this season for the Lady Eagles.

Unlike OC, Texas A&M-Commerce – ranked No. 10 in the latest Women's Basketball Coaches Association poll – is deep, with nine players averaging at least 10 minutes a game. Sophomore Dyani Robinson (last season's LSC freshman of the year) leads the Lions at 18.4 points per game. Another sophomore, forward DesiRay Kernal, averages 16.9 points per game but isn't listed as a projected starter for Tuesday's game.

The Lions have won seven of their last eight games and will be the first ranked team OC has played this season. The Lady Eagles and Lions were supposed to play a home-and-home series in late February but those games were cancelled due to hazardous travel conditions created by a winter storm.

"We will definitely have to take care of the ball and make shots," Findley said. "Their whole premise is to speed you up and make you play at an uncomfortable pace, so we've got to try to control the pace as much as we can and not hurry too much. They're solid and pretty deep and that's how they keep you going fast the whole game.

"It will be important for us to be strong and decisive with the ball and where we're going with it. Ultimately, it all boils down to the same things – take care of the ball, make shots, guard people and rebound."