SHAWNEE – Harding University used a 17-2 run early in the third quarter to pull away from Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday night in Great American Conference play at the Noble Complex.
Harding improved to 8-4 overall and 4-3 in the GAC while the green and gold evened their record at 6-6 and 2-4 in the league.
Turnovers were a key factor on Thursday as the Bison committed 22. For Harding, it converted those into 25 points. It also allowed the visitors to attempt 19 more shots than OBU (63-44).
Leading the way for the Bison were
Jaylin Stapleton,
Andreja Peciuraite and newcomer
Sierra Copeland. Each of those players scored eight. Freshman
Jill Leslie padded the stat sheet with seven points, six boards and three blocks to round out OBU's top efforts.
The Bison hit 50 percent (6-of-12) in the opening stanza to erase a five-point Harding lead (13-8) with less than two minutes left. A Leslie three-pointer from the top of the arc tied the game at 13 before the visitors went ahead 16-15 after a Sage Hawley layup with 43 ticks left.
In the second, OBU struggled to maintain offensive consistency as it turned it over 10 times and hit 3-of-8 from the field. The Bison did have a couple leads though, including a 23-22 margin following a Peciuraite fast-break layup with 4:44 left. However, in those final minutes, the green and gold hit just two free throws from
Payton Taylor and coughed up the ball five times.
By halftime, the Lady Bisons held a 31-26 advantage.
Then in the third, Harding made its game-clinching run. Over a 4:53 span, the visitors gave up just two points on free throws, got a couple more turnovers from OBU, and secured a 20-point lead (48-28) after a Hawley jumper in the paint at 5:07. The Bison also missed all six of their shots in that span.
Over the remainder of the game, Harding kept its double-digit lead before the final tally of 63-53.
The Bison will look to snap their three-game skid when they host Arkansas Tech (7-3, 4-2 GAC) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
