Ice-cold Bronchos Fall To NSU

2/7/2011 6:55:35 PM

Courtney Allen

Box Score

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (Feb. 7) -- It's hard to imagine that Central Oklahoma could suffer through a worse half of basketball.

The Bronchos couldn't buy a bucket in the opening 20 minutes against No. 6-ranked Northeastern State here Monday night, shooting an ice-cold 18.2 percent (6-of-33) in falling into a 35-15 hole en route to a 63-45 Lone Star Conference North Division setback.

UCO opened the game by missing its first seven shots in falling behind 8-0, followed its first make by clanking six in a row -- including four wide-open 3-pointers -- to trail 17-4 and didn't reach double digits until the 5:31 mark.

The deficit was 22-10 by that time and it reached 31-10 two minutes later before ending up 35-15 at the break. And it didn't get much better in the final 20 minutes as the Bronchos got no closer than 15 points.

Consider these first-half figures.

Ashley Beckley, shooting 50.0 percent on the year and the league's leading scorer with a 19.7 average, was 1-of-10 from the field with two points. Courtney Allen and Britney Morgan, shooting a combined 46 percent from 3-point range with 86 treys, were 0-of-9 from beyond the arc.

It all added up to an ugly loss for UCO, which had a seven-game winning streak snapped in falling to 13-6 overall and into a tie for the LSC North lead with NSU at 6-1. The RiverHawks won their sixth straight in improving to 17-2.

“We got off to a horrible start and that's the one thing we couldn't afford to do on the road against a really good team,” UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. “They did some things defensively that caused us problems, but we compounded that by missing a lot of shots that we normally make. It was a tough loss and we just have to put it behind us and move on.”

The Bronchos, making the trip here after Saturday's game was postponed by weather, go to Texas A&M-Commerce Wednesday before playing a third straight road game Saturday at Southeastern Oklahoma.

UCO ended up shooting a season-low 24.2 percent from the field, making just 15-of-62 shots, and was only 2-of-18 (11.1 percent) from long range in scoring 32 points below its league-leading 77.2 per-game average. It was the Bronchos' lowest-scoring game since a 44-point outing against Southwestern Oklahoma late in the 2005-06 season.

Beckley finished with a team-high 13 points, going 3-of-16 from the field and 7-of-9 from the line while adding six rebounds and three assists. Alex Richardson added 11 points and two blocked shots.

Morgan missed all nine of her shots, including seven 3-point tries, in finishing with a season-low two points.

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