LAWTON, Okla. – Mallory Lockhart registered 19 points and the Oklahoma Baptist defense held Cameron, the nation's 13
th-best scoring offense, 16 points below its season average during a 77-67 road win on Saturday.
Lockhart was 6-of-8 from the field including 4-of-6 from downtown.
Kalifa Ford added 15 points and six rebounds while
Andreja Peciuraite contributed 12 points. Additionally,
Madison Chambers came off the bench to score 10.
Defensively, the Bison held the Aggies, a team that was hitting over 40 percent from three heading into the game, to a 32.4 percent clip on Saturday. That was their second-lowest mark this season. Furthermore, the green and gold surrendered just five 3-pointers in 21 attempts (23.8) in the second half.
Fans got their money's worth on Saturday as competition brought 10 lead changes and six ties.
A little over four minutes in, Maighan Hedge swished through a three-ball to bring the home team's lead to 15-8 before the Bison pulled to within two, 24-22, by quarter's end.
Jill Leslie,
Malou Savanna, Ford and Lockhart all scored multiple points in the final 5:51 to get OBU to within a possession.
The Aggies led by as many as five in the second before OBU tied it at the end. With 1:29 remaining, OBU's last two possessions saw a Chambers long ball and Peciuraite layup to tie the scoreboard at 41.
After intermission, the Bison kept plugging away offensively, took the lead for good and watched as the host's offense dwindled.
Early in the third, back-to-back shots from Ford and Lockhart, the latter a three, gave OBU a lead, 46-44, that it would never relinquish. Over the remainder of the quarter, the Bison extended their lead to as many as seven, 54-47, after another Lockhart three.
Then in the fourth, Cameron hit the first bucket of the period, a Stephanie Peterson shot in the paint, which brought the tally to 58-57 OBU. That would be the closest the Aggies got the rest of the way, though.
OBU hit some key shots after that from
Melissa Southard, Chambers and Peciuraite, while
Payton Taylor and Leslie snagged some big rebounds after missed threes from Cameron to secure the victory.
Conference play opens next for OBU. On Dec. 2, the Bison travel to Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva for a 5:30 p.m. GAC contest.
