SHAWNEE – Saturday at the Noble Complex, Oklahoma Baptist stomped the court for their first at-home GAC game against Northwestern Oklahoma State. By night's end, the Bison stampede rolled the Rangers, 80-50.
Early on, Erika Ankney had back-to-back shots which had the Bison up 4-2. In a pretty even first quarter, the Bison and the Rangers traded defensives rebounds left and right due to each team's offense not producing much. In fact, OBU was able to pull down nine boards compared to NWOSU's six. By quarter's end, the scoreboard read a tight 12-10 Rangers lead.
The second saw a new offensive Bison fervor and a significant increase in NWOSU's turnover rate with four in the first five minutes.
Sophomore guard
Kayla Highfill sunk a killer three-pointer, shortly followed by a floating jump shot by Ankney and yet another three by Highfill. Then senior
Melissa Southard rounded this streak off with another three to take the Bison to their third lead of the game, 23-19.
From here, OBU ran with their shooting success. Jaedyn Getman,
Malou Savanna, Highfill and Ankney all took advantage of the action with three more three-pointers, a jumper, a pull up and a layup. That was 15 combined points.
With this, the Bison shot 85.7 percent from the three-point line for the second and ran their average field goal percentage to 51.9 in comparison to the Rangers' 25.6. Because of this shooting prowess, the Bison went into the half with a 38-25 advantage.
The third showcased the Bison pulling away from the Rangers. While Northwestern played a layup-focused game, OBU gathered points from all over the court and upped the ante on their blocking out.
OBU limited NWSU's offensive rebounds to two and pushed their biggest game lead to 19 points with 7:33 to play. For the rest of the stanza, the Bison maintained their offensive and defensive play and secured the third, 58-43.
In attempt to limit the Bison's offensive firepower, the Rangers switched to a two-man style of defense in the fourth. Unfortunately for them, this tactic only highlighted the Bison's offensive adaptability. Though OBU's three-point-heavy game stood out earlier in the contest, the Rangers' defensive switch left the Bison's forwards open for many layup and jumper opportunities.
The green and gold took advantage of the change and ran their biggest lead to an astounding 30-point margin after free throws from
Hannah Smith.
With the win, the Bison ran their record to 5-2 and 2-0 in the GAC while the Rangers dropped to 4-1 and 1-1. The 50 points scored by NWOSU was also a season-low.
Next on the schedule for OBU is another home game versus Oklahoma Christian on Dec. 6 at 7:00 p.m.
