Lady Bison Rally for Late Win

SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist rallied from 17 points down and knocked off Ouachita Baptist with a late basket by Shaylan Coleman, 72-70, Saturday.
 
With the score tied at 70-70, Tasha Edge set a low screen and Autumn Avina a high screen while McKenzie Cooper lobbed a long pass from the home hash line to Coleman under the basket. Coleman beat a block attempt by one Ouachita defender with five seconds to go.
 
"It's a play we ran before in practice and we're comfortable it. I trusted McKenzie to get it to me," Coleman said.
                                                                   
"It was the perfect play to draw up by Coach Bays, we ran it in practice and I told Shay 'I'm going to throw it up there and you go get it' and she did," Cooper said.
 
Bays added that the play was based on surprising Ouachita.
 
"I thought they were probably going to expect us to draw up a play for Tasha (Edge) or McKenzie, so we needed to come up with something else," Bays said. "McKenzie's pass was right on and Tasha and Autumn set a great screen for Shay. That was a great team effort. Shay is good at finishing when we need a basket."
 
OBU was down 56-39 with 6:53 left in the third quarter, but OBU used a pair of 11-0 runs to take the lead. Coleman had five points in the first spree, which cut the lead to 56-50 with 4:10 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Edge scored nine – all with three-pointers – to give the Lady Bison a 70-68 lead with 1:08 remaining.
 
Ouachita tied the game with 52 seconds left and later looked to have the ball for the last shot but Lexi Williams tipped an inbound pass and Cooper recovered it and got a timeout with 6.5 seconds left.
 
The Lady Bison defense was tough throughout the fourth quarter, allowing seven points and no field goals in the final 6:46.
 
Edge had a humungous day with 30 points and 13 rebounds, followed by Cooper with 17 points and Coleman with 15.
 
OBU returns to action Thursday with a 5:30 p.m. contest at Harding.