Bison Falter at Home to Lady Bulldogs

SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (3-4, 0-1 GAC) had a strong first-quarter start and end to the fourth but enough struggles on the offensive end resulted in a 59-53 Great American Conference loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State (3-3, 1-0 GAC) on Thursday at the Noble Complex.
 
Key Leaders

• Jaedyn Getman scored 20-plus points for the fourth straight game. She scored a game-high 23 on 7-of-13 shooting. She also posted an 8-for-10 line at the free throw line.
• OBU's next-highest scorer was Madison Chambers with nine. She also added a game-high six assists.
• Sydney Duncan registered five points and four rebounds while Catyn Graham added five points as well to round out OBU's top performers.

What Went Right

• A hot start. The Bison crushed the Lady Bulldogs with eight points in the paint within the first 3:38. Faith Wright then drilled a right-wing three to push the Bison lead to 11-2 at 4:59.
• In the second, Duncan converted an and-one, while Kennedy Large and Graham each scored. All those points gave OBU five-point leads on three occasions. The last of those, Graham's jumper at 5:13, had the hosts leading 24-19.
• OBU nearly rallied. In the fourth, the Bison were down as many as 18 points. As they've shown a few times already this season, they fought back. Duncan scored in the low post with 97 seconds left to bring the tally to 56-51. Then, after a SWOSU turnover, the Bison scored again courtesy of freshman Payten Conde and trimmed the deficit to 56-53.

What Went Wrong

• After the Bison's 11-2 start to the game, their ability to score in the paint diminished.
• That resulted in more three-point shots for the green and gold. By game's end, they made just 3-of-19 for 15.8 percent. That was the team's second-lowest percentage from deep this season.
• SWOSU forward Hailey Grant's turnaround shot was clutch throughout the contest. She ended up with a team-high 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting with five rebounds.
• Late-game turnovers. The Bison had a chance to tie the game at 53 but an errant pass to the paint resulted in a Grant steal. SWOSU then scored three free throws for its final point total.

On The Horizon

• OBU will head to Alva to face Northwestern Oklahoma State on Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. The Rangers won at East Central on Nov. 30 by a 74-58 count to improve their early-season record to 7-0.