The Oklahoma Christian University women’s basketball team dropped its first two official games of the season in a weekend trip to Colorado.
The Lady Eagles surrendered an early second-half run to drop the first game against the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 80-60.
The second game seemed to be in the hands of the Lady Eagles as they rallied to take a late-game lead, but Regis University took the lead back and wrapped up the second game with a final of 64-58.
Going into this trip, Women’s Basketball Head Coach Stephanie Findley said she felt positive about her team, but they did not play to their full potential. “We went to Colorado feeling pretty good about our team, but we ran into two very good teams on their home floors, which proved to be a tough task for us,” Findley said. “We shot the ball poorly and did not rebound very well. We are better shooters than we showed this weekend, but we definitely need to work on our rebounding.”
In the first game, after the Lady Eagles closed the first half with a surge to bring the score to 35-32, the Mountain Lions of UCCS strung together a 19-2 run to begin the second half that was the deciding factor in the game — to hold on for the 80-60 victory.
As Findley mentioned, the team struggled to shoot the ball, dropping 33 percent of their field goals and 22 percent of 3-pointers. Sarah Parker led Oklahoma Christian with 16 points and Sydney Hill added 10.
The second game of the trip was a different story as the Lady Eagles rallied late, but sill recorded a loss with a final score of 64-58.
Late free throws from McKenzie Stanford and Daisha Gonzaque gave the Lady Eagles the 58-56 lead with under 2 minutes to go. These would be the last points they scored in the game, allowing the Rangers to go on an 8-0 run to seal the 64-58 victory.
Stanford led with 19 points and eight rebounds and Parker added 14 points, also grabbing eight rebounds.
Findley said she saw a few highlights in a couple of individuals, but sees some areas in need of improvement to get ready for four games in one week.
“Sarah Parker had a good weekend as far as shooting goes but sat out a good portion of each first half with foul trouble,” Findley said. “Audrey Hayes and Jasmine Hinton gave us good energy and play off the bench. We really need to improve on our defense and rebounding as we look to this stretch of four games in one week.”
The Lady Eagles will regroup quickly as they host cross-town rival University of Central Oklahoma on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
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