by The USAO women’s basketball team kept its new hold on the Sooner Athletic Conference lead firmly in its grip thanks to an easy 88-49 victory at league newcomer Central Christian College Saturday in McPherson, Kan.
The USAO women’s basketball team kept its new hold on the Sooner Athletic Conference lead firmly in its grip thanks to an easy 88-49 victory at league newcomer Central Christian College Saturday in McPherson, Kan.
The win allowed the Drovers to reach the 20-win plateau for only the second time in school history. The last time was 2003 when USAO finished its season at 23-14. The Drovers are 20-3 overall and tied with Oklahoma City University for the league top spot at 12-2. USAO has important games remaining this week as it hosts Bacone College on Thursday, Feb. 8 and plays Saturday, Feb. 10 at John Brown University.
In the 39-point win against CCC, Darian Hill (Mvskoke Creek) scored a season-high 29 pints. USAO coach Darrick Matthews used his bench in great amounts as the non-starters scored 52 of the team’s 88 points. Freshman Tori James (FR/Blanchard, OK) had 11 points and senior Lauren Hart (SR/Alvord, TX) and sophomore Taylor Alexander (SO/Houston, TX) each added nine.
“We worked really well as a team today moving the ball and finding the open player,” USAO Coach Darrick Matthews said. “We finished the game with 27 assists which says a lot about our ball movement. I was pleased with the effort by several of our players from the bench. They came in and played really well for us.”
The Drovers led 18-15 after the first quarter but started to build quickly on their margin leading by as many as 17 points before taking a 40-27 lead at the halftime break.
USAO outscored the Tigers 18-1 over the last seven minutes of the half and were in front 58-32 at the end of the third. Reserves played the fourth as all 12 players who were in uniform played.
