Lady Bison Rally Past RSU

Oklahoma Baptist University's first journey to Rogers State ended with a hard-fought 58-48 Lady Bison win Saturday.

OBU had a brief first-half lead that evaporated quickly and the Hillcats had a 28-20 lead by halftime. The Lady Bison shot 29 percent from the field in the first half and had 10 turnovers.

"We knew it would be a hard-fought game and I thought we were a little soft with the ball," said OBU coach John McCullough. "We were a little careless with the ball, but we found a way to dig in on defense, got some stops and moved the ball a little better in the second half."

The Lady Bison shot 69 percent from the field in the second half, while holding Rogers State to 20 percent shooting.

OBU scored the first eight points of the second half to pull even, 28-28, at the 15:19 mark with four points coming from Heather Graham.

It appeared foul trouble might be problematic for OBU inside, as Graham and Betsy Simmons both had four fouls with 12 minutes left in the game, trailing by three points.

That deficit grew to 10 points down as Rogers State completed a 10-0 answer to OBU's half-opening run for a 38-28 advantage with 11:56 to play.

Still down 10, Taujhnae Travis triggered a 14-3 run with a steal and a lay-up. Travis scored again after a Jayme Glover basket, cutting the RSU lead to 41-37. Graham got OBU within a point with a basket off a feed from Ashley Gamble, 44-43, with 7:36 to play.

Simmons scored on a putback to give OBU its first lead in almost 18 minutes, 45-44, with 4:59 left.

Yoda Woods tied the game for RSU with a free throw, but Jennifer Jupin scored two free throws with 4:23 left to give OBU the lead for good, starting a game-finishing 13-3 run. Jupin had six points in that spree.

OBU hit seven of its last eight free throws in the last minute while RSU went 0-3 from the field and turned the ball over three times in that same span.

Simmons led OBU with 16 points while Jupin and Graham had 11 each. Travis, in her OBU debut, had nine points and a game-high nine rebounds.

Rogers State University 48, Oklahoma Baptist University 58

Rogers State University

Hayley KnifeChief 6-12 4-5 18; Yoda Woods 2-9 5-8 9; Katie Rice 3-4 2-2 8; Tasha Parker 2-7 1-2 6; Breck Muller 0-4 4-5 4; Hunter Peterson 1-5 0-2 2; Azzie Knox 0-6 1-4 1; Marshay Jasper 0-1 0-0 0; Ashley Coleman 0-0 0-0 0; Andrea Miles 0-1 0-0 0; Andrea Robinson 0-1 0-0 0; Hannah Owen 0-1 0-0 0; Erica Taylor 0-0 0-0 0; Tiffany Nelms 0-0 0-0 0; Megan Knowles 0-0 0-0 0; Totals 14-51 17-28 48.

Oklahoma Baptist University

Betsy Simmons 7-12 2-6 16; Jennifer Jupin 2-8 7-8 11; Heather Graham 3-10 5-6 11; Taujhnae Travis 4-7 1-3 9; Ashley Gamble 2-5 0-0 6; Jayme Glover 1-2 1-2 3; Keely Tolin 0-5 2-2 2; Katie Cupp 0-0 0-0 0; Kristin Anderson 0-0 0-0 0; Tiffany Jupin 0-0 0-0 0; Erin Pickering 0-0 0-0 0; Tanna Truelove 0-0 0-0 0; Jessi Donnel 0-0 0-0 0; Totals 19-49 18-27 58.

Rogers State University 28 20 - 48

Oklahoma Baptist University 20 38 - 58

3-point goals-Rogers State University 3-13 (Hayley KnifeChief 2-5; Tasha Parker 1-2; Breck Muller 0-2; Marshay Jasper 0-1; Hunter Peterson 0-2; Andrea Robinson 0-1) , Oklahoma Baptist University 2-13 (Ashley Gamble 2-4; Jayme Glover 0-1; Keely Tolin 0-2; Jennifer Jupin 0-3; Heather Graham 0-3) . Fouled out--Rogers State University-Azzie Knox, Yoda Woods, Oklahoma Baptist University-Heather Graham, Betsy Simmons. Rebounds-Rogers State University 37 (Tasha Parker 5; Hayley KnifeChief 5; Yoda Woods 5) , Oklahoma Baptist University 41 (Taujhnae Travis 9) . Assists-Rogers State University 8 (Tasha Parker 2; Hunter Peterson 2) , Oklahoma Baptist University 8 (Keely Tolin 3) . Total Fouls-Rogers State University 24, Oklahoma Baptist University .