SHAWNEE – Arkansas Tech's Jalei Oglesby scored 20 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as the Golden Suns outscored Oklahoma Baptist 34-16 in the second half on Thursday en route to a 67-52 win.
ATU's rebounding performance was massive with a 57-27 advantage. Twenty-four of those came on the offensive end and by game's end, the Golden Suns had a 27-8 second-chance points lead.
For the Bison,
Jill Leslie posted 20 points, tied her career-high with four blocks and added two steals.
Jaedyn Getman added 14 points and nine rebounds. As a team, the green and gold shot 32.1 percent, its second-lowest this season. They were also 63.6 percent from the foul line, a season-low.
A highly-competitive first quarter brought six lead changes before ATU closed the period with a 5-0 stretch.
Madison Chambers and Getman, more than halfway through the first, had pushed the Bison up by five on a couple of occasions.
The last of those at 4:14, a Getman pull-up shot from just outside the paint, had the hosts up 14-9. However, in the final four minutes, the Golden Suns found an 11-2 run. Oglesby led the visitors with eight of those points and heading to the second, ATU led 20-16.
Second-quarter action saw the Bison have some solid offensive possessions. With the score knotted up at 26, OBU scored six straight on two Leslie freebies and shots by
Kennedy Large and Chambers. The Bison hit 46.1 percent in the second and led 36-33 at the break.
After the halftime intermission, the third quarter went heavily in the favor of ATU.
The green and gold scored six points and made 3-of-13 (23.1%) from the field. They also, early on, missed numerous close-range shots.
As for the Golden Suns, they used the foul line going 9-for-12. In the final 86 seconds, ATU took a 46-42 lead and made it 52-42 with freebies by Hayleigh Wyrick and Julie Wagner as well as a jumper by Claudia Bridges.
A few minutes into the fourth, the Bison had pulled to within six, 52-46, after a Chambers layup. However, the visitors responded and found another double-digit lead, 59-48, following Alex Hill's bucket at 6:07.
That double-digit advantage remained for the rest of the game.
On Saturday, the Bison will return to action against Harding at 1 p.m. inside the Noble Complex.
