Oklahoma Baptist picked up its first NCAA women's basketball win with a convincing 75-56 win over Ouachita Baptist.
The Lady Bison smothered the Tigers, holding the visitors to 29 percent shooting and out-rebounding them 51-41.
"Our focus this week was defense and rebounding," said sophomore guard McKenzie Cooper, who had 20 points and three steals. It felt really good to play at home again."
The fact that Ouachita Baptist was picked higher than the preseason No. 9 GAC team OBU was not lost on the team.
"We are a new team in the league and because of that, we have to prove our preseason ranking wrong," said OBU Coach Casi Bays.
The Lady Bison took over early, as a three-pointer by Cooper triggered a 19-4 run and broke open a 5-4 game in the first quarter. Cooper had eight points and Lexi Williams added five in that run to a 24-8 lead.
The home OBU led 26-14 at the end of the quarter and Ouachita had trimmed that lead to 33-24 by halftime.
"We need to stop playing sloppy with a lead, but we got better tonight," said Bays.
OBU's biggest lead was 22 points, coming on a Katy Custer basket with 4:13 left in the game.
Joining Cooper in double-figures in the scoring column were Kiara Moore and Custer with 16 points each.
"Katy did well tonight and Kiara showed what she is capable of tonight," said Bays.
Tasha Edge and Cameerah Graves hit the boards hard for 11 and 10 rebounds each, respectively.
Breanna Harris led Ouachita with 145 points, while Katie Kapler had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The Lady Bison, now 1-2 overall and 1-0 in the GAC, host Henderson State at 1 p.m. The Reddies come into the game Saturday off of a 70-61 win at Southern Nazarene.
