SHAWNEE – Southern Arkansas attempted 49 three-point shots on Thursday, the most a Bison team has had to defend in the Division II era. But by the end of four quarters, Oklahoma Baptist slowed them down and won 73-64.
The green and gold's defense flew around all night long and ended giving up 30.6 percent from deep. OBU also rebounded extremely well by collecting 29 defensive boards.
Leading the charge was
Jill Leslie who tallied a career-high 21 points with five rebounds. Senior
Madison Chambers added 14 points and six rebounds while
Malou Savanna came off the bench to tally 13 points, tying her career-high. As a unit, OBU was extremely efficient on offense, shooting 54.7 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from three.
OBU led for nearly the entirety of the game on Thursday. Early on, a three from SAU's Brooklin Brown had the visitors up 3-2, but that didn't last long as
Kennedy Large scored on the next possession for the Bison.
Following that Large bucket, the home squad expanded its lead to 11 points, 19-8, after two free throws from Savanna at 1:51.
Heading into the second up 19-14, the Bison defense locked down SAU by holding them to 20-percent shooting. With OBU's defense humming, its offense got in gear. A seven-for-12 shooting clip (53.8%) moved the home team's lead to 12 points, 36-24, by half. Leslie had eight points in the period to lead OBU.
After intermission, the Muleriders fought back to within three. At the 4:31 mark, SAU had connected on a couple three balls and free throws to pull the scoreboard to 43-40 after a Brown freebie.
What followed was OBU's game-clinching run. The Bison scored on six of their next seven possessions and hit a 15-3 stretch. Large converted an and-one, Chambers and Savanna each hit threes and
Sierra Copeland gave her team a 15-point advantage, 58-43, with a layup with 58 ticks left.
It was 58-46 going to the fourth and SAU would never get any closer than nine, 73-64, the final tally.
On Saturday, OBU will host Arkansas-Monticello at 1 p.m.
