Moving On

3/2/2011 2:53:34 PM

Alyssa Fuxa

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BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (March 2) – When Central Oklahoma outrebounds its opponent, the Bronchos win.

Head coach Guy Hardaker noticed that little tidbit Tuesday night and made sure his team was aware of it before Wednesday afternoon's battle with Angelo State in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Women's Basketball Championship at Bruin Fieldhouse.

The result? UCO used a 44-38 advantage on the boards to pave the way to a 76-52 trouncing of the Rambelles, who were coming off a big upset of No. 16-ranked Tarleton State and had won eight of their last nine games.

“I saw in the stats that we usually win when we get out and rebound so I made sure we got after it on the boards,” said Hardaker, whose team is now 18-1 when outrebounding teams this season. “We did a great job of controlling things inside, both offensively and defensively, and came out with a good win.”

The Bronchos improved to 19-8 in moving into Friday night's semifinals against the winner of No. 18-ranked Tarleton State.

Alyssa Fuxa had a game-high 20 points and added six rebounds to lead UCO. Alex Richardson had16 points, seven boards and five blocked shots, Ashley Beckley 14 points and 10 rebounds and Britney Morgan 13 points.

All nine of UCO's players had at least one rebound in the game and the Bronchos also held ASU to 29.8-percent (17-of-57) shooting from the field while committing a season-low six turnovers.

UCO never trailed and the game was tied only twice, the final time at 5-5 just three minutes in. Fuxa broke that deadlock with a 3-pointer from the corner to ignite a 9-0 run that put the Bronchos on top 14-5 at the 13:30 mark.

The Rambelles trailed just 19-16 when UCO took control again, getting a short turnaround jumper from Beckley and a Morgan trey from the top of the key in another 9-0 spurt that made it 28-16.

The Bronchos went on to take a 34-22 cushion into halftime and then scored the first eight points of the second half to really break the game open.

Courtney Allen started that run with a 3-pointer from the wing, Morgan followed with another trey from out front and Beckley ended it with a nifty spin move and inside bucket right as the shot clock expired.

That made it 42-22 with 16:05 left to play and UCO was never threatened the rest of the way in posting their biggest margin of victory (24) in the league tournament.

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