Lady Bison over Southwestern

The Lady Bison escaped Saturday with a 77-74 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State University. The Lady Bison were down by 13 in the second half, but rallied to beat the NCAA Division II Lady Bulldogs.

"I'm really proud of our girls tonight," said Women's Head Coach John McCullough. "Our girls really played tough and buckled down when they needed to."

OBU was led by Layla Schwarz who scored 18 points while pulling in six rebounds.

"Her (Schwarz) attitude has really changed since last year," said McCullough. "She was really hard on her self before when she wasn't playing well. Now she just plays the best she can and whatever that is, is good enough for us. We need Layla to play well night in and night out for us to win games."

The Lady Bison not only had to deal with being down late in the game, but also had to battle a SWOSU team that shot 56 percent from beyond the arc.

"They (Southwestern) were a good team," said McCullough. "They got some people that can shoot the basketball obviously. Their three-point shooting hurt us because we didn't get out and cover well."

Kelli Welborn, Rachel Heins and Shannon Plumb all reached double figures in the game for OBU. Welborn and Heins both scored 13 points and Plumb added 12 points of her own.

"Rachel really likes to push and shove in the post," said McCullough. "With the new hand checking rules, it actually plays to her favor. She did a great job tonight. She was the one who really got us going tonight in the second half."

SWOSU was led by Julie Dawson who was the games leading scorer with 26 points, as she was 6-9 from three-point range.

The Lady Bison struggled early in the first half by hitting only one field goal in the first three minutes of play until Trena Robbins was fouled on a made basket. Robbins' basket sparked a 13-3 run for OBU over the next three minutes of the game as OBU held a 16-6 lead with 14 minutes left to play in the first half. Julie Dawson pulled the Lady Bulldogs within three at 19-16 after she hit back to back field goals, but Kelli Welborn drained a three for the Lady Bison as OBU extended their lead to 22-19 with 7:29 left in the half.

After Tabetha Eaton took OBU's lead up to five at 24-19, Southwestern went on a 6-0 run capped off by a Dawson three that gave SWOSU their second lead of the game with 5:32 left in the half.

The Lady Bulldogs took their biggest lead of the first half by six when Grace Jones hit a jumper to give SWOSU a 33-27 lead with just over two minutes left in the half.

OBU cut their deficit to two at the end of the half when Eaton sunk two free throws to make the score 35-33 in favor of Southwestern.

Southwestern started off the second half with a 9-2 run to jump out to 44-35 with 16:26 to play. Dawson sparked a 5-0 run for the Lady Bulldogs with 9:30 left to play that brought SWOSU out to it's biggest lead of the game at 56-49.

Late in the second half OBU found themselves down by eight at 68-60, but a Welborn three pointer ignited a 10-0 run that captured OBU's first lead since the 6:13 mark in the first half.

Eaton pushed the game out to 75-71 with 1:03 left, but Dru Tomaszewski drilled a three pointer to bring the Lady Bulldogs within one; however Tomazewski's three was not enough as Schwarz closed out the game with two free throws as the Lady Bison move to 3-0 on the year.

OBU next heads to Columbia, Mo., Monday and then goes to Siloam Springs, Ark. Nov. 19 and 20 for a tournament at John Brown University.