OBU Women Fall in SAC Quarterfinals

March 4, 2005

Oklahoma Baptist only shot 25.9 percent in a 50-42 loss to Lubbock Christian Friday night in the opening round of the Joe Cooper Ford Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.

"I really didn't expect this thing coming," said John McCullough, head coach of OBU. "I thought we had some good shots, but we just couldn't get a basket to fall at the beginning and from that point on it was an uphill battle. I just think we got frustrated when we missed shots early."

The Lady Bison were 15-of-58 from the field during the game and were only one-of-12 from three-point range.

"I felt like we got open looks," said McCullough. "Maybe some of our poor shooting had to do with their defense, but a lot of it had to do with our offensive execution. Probably half of the shots we took in the first half were rushed. We brought if back close in the second half, but we forgot about Lauren Abbot."

Lauren Abbot led all scorers with 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds. The only other Lady Chap in double figures was Lindsay Reeves who scored 10.

The only Bison in double figures was Rachel Heins with 10 points.

The Bison went four-for-28 in the first half from the field scoring only 14 points. OBU scored six points in the first 15 minutes of play.

In the second half, Lubbock led by 18 at 35-17 with 16:02 to play, but the Lady Bison began to chip away at the lead.

OBU cut the lead down to nine at 37-28 after Kelli Welborn got a lay up to spark a 7-0 run, but the Lady Chaparrals pushed the lead back out to 13 at 43-30.

After Lubbock jumped out to a 13 point lead at 45-32 with 6:05 to play, OBU went on a 10-0 run over the next 4:16 to pull within three at 45-42.

However, Lubbock held on and finished the game with a 5-0 run to pull off the eight-point victory.

OBU now sits and waits for news of at at-large bid to the national tournament.

"I think this loss will probably affect our tournament chances," said McCullough. "We might get in we might not. We were ranked 12th one week and the next week we didn't get any votes. We're ranked 21st right now. So if you can go from 12th to no votes, I think you can go from 21st to no votes."