In its final regular-season game, the Oklahoma Christian University women’s basketball team fell 88-76 to Heartland Conference rival Lubbock Christian University on Thursday.
The loss to the Lady Chaps snapped a four-game winning streak for the Lady Eagles as both teams head into the Heartland Conference Championship tournament this weekend.
Despite only turning the ball over eight times and shooting 87 percent, 20-23, from the free throw line, the Lady Chaps outrebounded the Lady Eagles 46-29, which gave Lubbock Christian 14 second chance points on the offensive end.
The Lady Eagles kept the game within a single possession through the first quarter, 30-29, and the game was tied 43-43 with 1:19 remaining in the second. The Lady Chaps went on to take a five-point lead going into the second half.
Late in the third quarter, Oklahoma Christian fell behind 68-53 with 1:50 left in the quarter and only came within seven points the rest of the game.
Senior McKenzie Stanford put up 27 points as she increased her total points on the season to 506 and finished the regular season ahead of all other scorers in the conference by two points.
Fellow senior Sarah Parker added 15 points and a team-high eight rebounds while sophomore Addy Clift scored 12 points.
The Lady Eagles will play the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith in the Heartland Conference Championship tournament Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center in Tulsa, OK.
While the Lady Eagles wrapped up their regular season play, the men’s basketball team had two games remaining in their season.
“This season was a journey,” senior Luis Lopez said. “I had a great time with the team and no matter what the outcome was we did it as a group.”
The first of the final two games ended in an 83-60 loss to Lubbock Christian as the Eagles failed to stop an early Chaparral run.
Oklahoma Christian only led once, 3-2, at the 17:52 mark in the first half and only had two players score in double digits — seniors Keilan Horton with 12 points and John Moon with 10.
Lubbock Christian went into halftime leading 44-27 and with 16:35 left in the game led by 22 points, 53-31. The Eagles came no closer than 18 points for the remainder of the game.
Moon raised his career scoring total to 1,856 points with one game remaining in his collegiate career and Horton passed the 1,000-career-points mark with his 328 points in his only season playing for the Eagles.
For their final game of the season, the Eagles faced one of the teams tied for first place in the Heartland Conference standings, Dallas Baptist University.
In his last collegiate game, Moon dropped 26 points on 10-14 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds. He ended his career in second place on the Heartland Conference’s all-time scoring list with 1,881 points.
Moon also moved into fifth place on the Oklahoma Christian all-time scoring list and holds the school and conference record for blocked shots with 237. He led the conference in rebounds, 8.7 per game, and blocks, 2.8 per game, while also finishing second in points per game with 17.6.
Four other Eagles scored in the double digits: juniors Elijah Strickland and Marcus Mathieu, and sophomore Jordan Box all put up 12 points, while freshman Dorian Lopez added 10.
Even after shooting 55.8 percent from the field, it was not enough to overcome the 19-11 turnover difference and Dallas Baptist shooting 57.6 percent as the Eagles lost 97-86.
The Eagles only led once after a shot by Horton with 11:05 left in the first half, going up 17-15. The Patriots went into halftime with a 50-39 lead.
The Eagles brought it back within single digits multiple times in the second half, but could not get any closer than nine points.
This was the final game as an Eagle for Moon, Horton, Zach Norris and Lopez.
“I loved being a part of the team,” Lopez said. “I hope I made an impact in my time here both on and off the court.”
Statistics provided by the Oklahoma Christian University Sports Information Office.
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