Lady Bison Roll over USAO

Oklahoma Baptist opened its Sooner Athletic basketball schedule with a 73-56 victory in Chickasha Thursday behind 62 percent shooting from beyond the three-point arch.

Dilenny Castillo was three-for-three from long range on her way to an 18-point, 8-rebound outing.

"Dilenny has just gotten comfortable from the perimeter," said Lady Bison coach John McCullough. "This was a big road win for us."

A big road win it was, and it was the first this season for the Lady Bison, who improved to 7-4 overall and 1-0 in the SAC. USAO dipped to 1-1 in the SAC and 8-4 overall.

The early first half gave no notice of how the Lady Bison would play throughout the game. After Castillo canned a three-pointer to open the game, OBU missed its next 10 field goals and trailed 10-5 with eight minutes expired.

The Lady Bison still trailed by 24-23 count before exploding on a half-ending 14-0 run fueled by six points from Castillo. The spree left OBU with a 37-24 halftime lead.

OBU quickly pushed the lead out to 20 points in the early part of the second half and the Drovers never got closer than 13 the rest of the way.

OBU shot 49 percent from the field for the game and 61.5 percent from three-point range for the evening.

Following Castillo's 18 points in the scoring column for OBU were Jennifer Jupin with 15, Rachel Heins with 13 and Betsy Simmons with nine to go along with a game-high nine rebounds.

OBU, sporting the top-ranked interior defense in the NAIA, out-rebounded USAO 40-30 and blocked five shots while holding USAO to 35.6 percent shooting.

Sha'Donna Stewart and Nikki Yager had 10 points each for USAO.

The Lady Bison will play Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva Saturday. Tip off is 6 p.m.