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BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (March 4) – In a game with more twists and turns than a Hollywood spy thriller, it was Central Oklahoma who wrote the suspenseful ending against Abilene Christian in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Women's Basketball Championship here Thursday night.
The Bronchos survived a 111-105 triple-overtime classic, overcoming an eight-point deficit in the last few minutes of regulation and getting the tying points in the final seconds of the first two extra periods before finally putting the game away in the third OT.
ACU appeared to have the game won after scoring with less than a second to play in the second overtime to take a 99-97 lead, but the Wildcats were called for a technical foul when several players rushed the court and UCO's Jordan Stark made two pressure-packed free throws to force another OT.
Alyssa Fuxa then scored six points in a 10-0 run early in the third OT to put the Bronchos in control and UCO was able to close out the fierce battle that left both teams exhausted in the highest-scoring game in school history.
“I saw two teams out there who didn't want to give this game up,” UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. “It was a battle and I knew it would be. Both teams played their hearts out and we're real pleased to come out on top.”
The Bronchos improved to 22-6 and moved into Saturday's 2:30 p.m. semifinals against the winner of the Southeastern-West Texas A&M game that was being played late Thursday.
UCO won despite free throw shooting woes and ACU's dominance on the boards, overcoming those problems with pressure defense that resulted in a season-high 21 steals and forced the Wildcats into 37 turnovers. The Bronchos shot just 61.5 percent from the charity stripe (24-of-39) and were outrebounded 52-34.
Ashley Beckley scored a career-high 28 points and added a team-leading eight rebounds before fouling out early in the second OT, while Cristina Yarbrough had 18 points, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals in playing 52 of the game's 55 minutes.
Brianne Grisham was a perfect 5-of-5 from 3-point range in scoring a career-high 17 points to go along with five steals and three assists, with Stark also scoring 17 points and Rose Anderson 15.
ACU, which finished an amazing 31-of-33 from the line, got a tournament-record 44 points from Jamie Meyer.
UCO trailed most of the game and went 2-of-8 from the foul line during one late stretch in falling behind 69-61 with 4:11 left to play. The Bronchos rallied from long range, getting two treys from Grisham and another from Stark in a 9-2 run that made it 71-70 with 2:45 remaining.
Anderson finally drew UCO even at 72-all on a driving layup at the 1:45 mark and Stark gave the Bronchos a 74-72 lead with a follow shot at 1:00.
The Wildcats tied it with 39.2 seconds left on two free throws and regulation ended in a 74-all deadlock.
UCO surged in front 83-79 with 2:12 left in the first OT on two Yarbrough free throws, but ACU came back with six straight points to go on top 85-83 with 57.1 seconds to play.
Beckley tied in on a layup with 12.2 seconds remaining and Stark got a steal with four ticks remaining, but her wild shot at the buzzer was off the mark.
ACU had a 95-92 lead late in the second extra session when Grisham banked in a 3-pointer from the wing to tie it at 0:34.1. It was tied again at 97 when Anderson drove in for a layup with just 6.9 seconds left, but the Wildcats broke UCO's press and went up 99-97 on Meyer's layup with a mere two-tenths of a second on the clock.
That's when ACU was hit with the technical and Stark stepped up to make both foul shots and force yet another overtime.
“I didn't really think about it,” Stark said of the tying free throws. “I just stepped up there and made 'em. Coach (Hardaker) asked if I wanted to take the shots and I said 'yeah'.”
ACU got the opening bucket of the final OT, but Fuxa quickly tied it with a layup off a Yarbrough feed and another Wildcat turnover led to Anderson's reverse layup that put UCO in front to stay at 103-101.
Fuxa followed a Stark steal with a layup at 2:28 to make it 105-101, with a Stark layup and two Fuxa free throws upping the lead to 109-101 with 37.6 seconds left and sealing the verdict.
