Lady Bison Handle Northwestern

January 6, 2007

Oklahoma Baptist improved to 2-0 in the Sooner Athletic Conference with a second road victory, a 73-49 win at Northwestern Oklahoma State Saturday night.

"We went out and took care of business and that's what you have to do to win on the road in this conference," said OBU coach John McCullough. "Our posts were just punishing tonight and they did a good job of taking care of the ball."

OBU dominated the backboards with 41 rebounds to Northwestern's 20 with Dilenny Castillo leading the Lady Bison effort with 10 boards.

The Lady Bison had a 21-18 lead midway through the first half before going on a 20-7 run to end the half for a 41-25 lead at intermission.

Northwestern cut the lead to 45-34 early in the second half, but Jennifer Jupin scored five points to fuel a 10-0 run for a 55-34 advantage with 12 minutes left in the game.

Katie Blagg took advantage of OBU's collapsing on conference-leading scorer Brittany McBride and knocked down three three-pointers for the Lady Rangers to close to within 57-43, but OBU answered with successive three-pointers by Rachel Heins and Lena Brenning to push the lead back to 63-43 with 8:15 remaining.

"When McBride is the game she makes it hard to cover those long three-point shots," said McCullough.

OBU turned in lay-ups off back-to-back steals for a 69-45 lead, their largest of the night. Dilenny Castillo and Jupin had the steals with Betsy Simmons and Jupin getting the points.

Castillo and Betsy Simmons led OBU with 14 points, followed by Heins with 11 and Jupin with 10. OBU shot 46 percent from the field, including 42 percent from three-point range.

McBride finished with a game-high 16 points for Northwestern, who dropped to 2-9 overall and 0-3 in the SAC.

Now 8-4 overall and 2-0 in the SAC, the Lady Bison will play at Oklahoma Christian Thursday. The Lady Eagles, ranked 23rd nationally, knocked off sixth-ranked Lubbock Christian Saturday afternoon.