LAREDO, Texas (Feb. 14, 2019) – The Oklahoma Christian Lady Eagles are showing themselves to be road warriors as the Heartland Conference women's basketball season enters its homestretch. The latest proof came Thursday.
OC never trailed, led by as many as 28 points and held off a late rally to cruise to a 71-54 win over winless Texas A&M International at the Kinesiology and Convocation Building.
It was the third conference road win this season for OC (12-11, 5-5 Heartland) and the fifth overall. OC moved into a tie with St. Mary's (Texas) for third place in the Heartland standings, setting up a showdown in San Antonio on Saturday afternoon against the Rattlers.
Addy Clift, the leading scorer in NCAA Division II, scored 23 points, hitting 13 of 14 free-throw attempts to offset a 5-of-16 shooting outing for OC. Katie Mayo posted her fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds and Megan Shelton added 10 points and Tyra Peck had eight. Point guard Maddison Collyer matched her season high for assists with 10 and had a career-high five steals.
OC beat TAMIU (0-9, 0-21) by 55 points in Oklahoma City on Jan. 17 and the Lady Eagles again seized control early in the rematch, jumping to an 8-0 lead in the first 4½ minutes. OC was up 23-8 by the end of the first quarter and led 39-22 at halftime.
OC's lead peaked at 55-27 on a layup by Collyer with 4:09 left in the third quarter. The Dustdevils steadily cut into that margin over the next nine minutes, though, and came as close as 61-50 after a three-point play by Christine Ortega with 5:24 left.
After OC coach Stephanie Findley called a timeout, the Lady Eagles settled down and reasserted themselves, outscoring TAMIU 10-4 the rest of the way.
Ortega led the Dustdevils with 14 points, while Tacoya Allen and Kendall Alsup had 10 points each. TAMIU shot just 29.6 percent from the field (21 of 71) compared to 45.5 percent for OC (25 of 55). OC hit 19 of 20 free-throw attempts while the Dustdevils had just seven free throws, making five.
Reader Comments(0)