Lady Bison open SAC play with a 51-34 win

OBU has already improved over last years opening games in the Sooner Athletic Conference after their 51-34 defeat of St. Gregory's University.

The Lady Bison opened up the 2003-2004 conference season with five straight losses, but open this conference season with a win.

With the win OBU improves to 12-0 overall and 1-0 in the SAC. SGU falls under .500 with the loss at 5-6 and 0-1 in the conference.

"It's always tough when you play St. Gregory's," said Head Coach John McCullough. "It's two teams that are only a mile apart that have a lot of tradition between the two schools."

The No. 6 Lady Bison were led by Layla Schwarz and Rachel Heins who both dumped in nine points on the night. Schwarz added 14 rebounds while Heins pulled in six boards and did it coming off the bench.

While the Bison pulled off a 17 point victory, not one lady was in double figures in scoring.

The only player in double figures for the game was Danya Neugent who scored 11 for the Lady Cavaliers.

Both the Lady Bison and Cavaliers got off to a rough start as neither St. Gregory's nor Oklahoma Baptist shot over 30 percent. OBU shot 28 percent while SGU hit 20 percent from the field in the first half.

"The shooting was pretty normal from coming off a five week break," said McCullough. "Our defense is what kept us going tonight. Our defense was our best offense tonight and that's the way it goes sometimes."

Priscilla Alves and Neugent led all scorers at the half. Alves had five points for the Lady Bison while Neugent matched her counter part with five for the Lady Cavaliers.

The Lady Bison found themselves down early in the first half 6-4, but went on a 5-0 run to take the lead at 9-6.

After Neugent tied the game at nine OBU scored nine straight points to take an 18-9 lead.

SGU did take the OBU lead down to five at 13-18 with four minutes left, but the Lady Bison pulled away in the closing minutes to take their biggest lead of the half at 23-13.

In the second half OBU extended their lead to 13 after three straight points by senior Trena Robbins. Robbins hit a jumper from inside the ark and drained a free throw to help OBU take 30-17 lead.

Neugent and Kristin Muggenborg helped SGU go on a 7-0 to cut their deficit to six at 30-24 with 14 minutes left to play. Neugent opened the run with a trey and Muggenborg hit back-to-back field goals to cap off the run.

While the Lady Cavaliers got within six of OBU it was the closest they would get as OBU quickly extended their lead with an 11-2 run. OBU continued to pull away the rest of the game to seal the victory.

The Lady Bison's undefeated record will the threatened Saturday as the reigning national runner-up Oklahoma City University comes to Shawnee.