Coming Up Roses

2/6/2010 4:41:22 PM

Cristina Yarbrough

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EDMOND (Feb. 6) – Rose Anderson sure didn't perform like a player not even expected to suit up.

Unable to practice the last two days with a hip injury and listed as doubtful hours before the game, Anderson instead scored a career-high 21 points and made four clutch free throws in the final two minutes as Central Oklahoma escaped Texas Woman's 74-69 Saturday afternoon at Hamilton Field House.

The Bronchos never trailed in the contest and led by 19 (60-41) with just 10:19 left to play, but then had to hold on down the stretch to secure their second tough win in four days over the Pioneers.

UCO, which pulled out a 96-93 double-overtime thriller over TWU on Wednesday, improved to 16-5 overall and 7-1 in the LSC North with its sixth consecutive win. The Pioneers fell to 11-9 and 5-3.

“I really didn't think Rose would play and she was great for us today,” UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. "She was aggressive on both ends of the floor and just made a lot of plays that we had to have.

"We got a little careless after getting a big lead and TWU is too good a team to do that against. We played really well for stretches, but then had some major letdowns that we can't afford to do.”

Anderson finished 7-of-8 from the field with two 3-pointers and a perfect 5-of-5 from the line in her 21-point outing and added seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

Ashley Beckley also scored 21 points and tied a career-high with 11 rebounds, while Cristina Yarbrough had 14 points and five assists and Jordan Stark 11 points. The Bronchos prevailed despite shooting just 38.7 percent (24-of-62) from the field, including only 23.8 percent (5-of-21) from 3-point range.

UCO appeared in control when it pushed a 32-28 halftime lead to a big 60-41 advantage with just over 10 minutes remaining, but the Pioneers went on a 16-2 run to get within five (62-57) with 6:28 left and it was close the rest of the way.

TWU was within a bucket at 68-66 after a Kayla Weaver free throw with 3:11 to play, but neither team scored again until Anderson followed a Brianne Grisham steal with two free throws at 1:53 to up UCO's lead to 70-66.

The Pioneers made it a one-point game at 70-69 with 1:28 to play, Anderson came through with two more clutch foul shots at 0:31 to boost the lead to 72-69 and then Beckley hit one of two throws at 0:17 after rebounding a TWU miss to make it 73-69.

Anderson blocked a 3-point try at 0:06 and Beckley again made one of two charity tosses with four seconds left to clinch the hard-earned win.

The Bronchos got out to a quick 4-0 lead on back-to-back layups by Stark and built a big 16-point advantage at 32-16 before TWU ended the half with a 12-0 run to get within 32-28 at intermission.

Yarbrough scored six points in a 10-0 spurt to open the second half that pushed UCO's lead back to 14 (42-28) and that became a 19-point bulge at 60-41 on a Beckley layup with 10:19 left before TWU rallied to make things interesting down the stretch.

The Bronchos return to LSC North action Wednesday, traveling to Weatherford to take on Southwestern Oklahoma at 6 p.m.

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