Lady Bison Come Up Short in Final

March 11, 2008

The rubber game belong to Oklahoma City - almost all night long.

The teams split three-point home wins in the regular season but OCU led Oklahoma Baptist by as many as 20 points in claiming the women's SAC Championship, 83-73 Tuesday night.

The first half belonged to Oklahoma City and the officiating, which rang up 12 OBU fouls, putting the

Lady Bison Betsy Simmons, Jayme Glover, Ashley Gamble and Heather Graham on the bench with two each.

The half included three ties and six lead changes, the last of which came during an 8-0 Stars run to build a 31-25 lead. OCU got the lead up to 42-32 with 2:01 left in the half with a 7-0 run and had the advantage at halftime, 44-35.

Both teams shot 54 percent from the field in the first half and were both 5-of-9 from three-point range, which was no small feat for either team as both have top 10 field goal defense numbers this season. The difference was turnovers. OBU gave the ball up 14 times in the first half, resulting in 20 points.

The OCU lead peaked at 68-48 with OBU out scoring the eventual champions 25-15 in the last 10 minutes.

"I think OCU played well," said OBU coach John McCullough. "Every time we made a run, they hit a big bucket. We can learn from this and get better."

OBU got hurt in the post, where Betsy Simmons fouled out after just 17 minutes of action that limited her to seven points.

"Not having Betsy the whole game really hurt us and it shows," said McCullough. "Their post play was good. It was the difference in the game."

The 50-percent shooting from behind the arch for OCU didn't hurt either.

Hustle Award winner Taujhnae Travis led the way for OBU with 27 points and she tied Graham with a game-high four rebounds.

Now 29-4, the Lady Bison set their vision on the National Tournament, with brackets to come later this week.