The Lady Bisons had a split on their road trip, winning against Northwestern Oklahoma State University (NWOSU) on Thursday night and losing to Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) on Saturday.
Early in the game against NWOSU, the Lady Bisons built a 15 point lead with just over six minutes to go in the fist half. NWOSU was able to cut the lead down to two points with just over one minute before the half. Senior forward Arielle Saunders was able to score to build the lead back to four points and freshman guard Lundon Williams stole the ensuing inbound pass and scored a quick basket to push the Lady Bisons halftime lead to six.
“I had noticed the throw-in man wasn’t really paying attention throwing it in as the game went on and just knowing how frustrating it is to get scored on so close to going in at half time,” Williams said. “I stayed up even further to guard the ball and the girl just threw it right to me. I think it helped everyone realize the pressure we were putting on them was paying off and that if we continued it in the second half, then they would make more small mistakes like that.”
In the second half, the Lady Bisons got off to a better start and sophomore forward Correy Moyer played a part in extending the lead from 12 to 21 points by hitting three straight 3-point shots.
“I knew with the way the other team was trying to get a come back and trying to push the ball I had to do my part,” Moyer said. “That includes hitting shots. Once I hit the first one I knew I was going to hit more.”
The Lady Bisons improved their record to 17-3 overall and 13-1 in the GAC with the 64-45 win. They shot a solid 45 percent while holding NWOSU to 35 percent.
They had a quick turnaround for their noon game on Saturday. It was close for much of the second half, but their poor shooting percentage was no match for the second half shooting performance of SWOSU, who shot just over 55 percent from the field and were 6-12 from three point range in the second half.
“(Saturday) we wanted it, but when things started to not go our way, we let it start to avalanche you could say,” Moyer said. “We battled really hard. Don’t get me wrong, very hard, but we weren’t able to make the plays or finish when we needed to. We let their intensity get to us.”
Moyer was 6-7 from the field and 5-6 from three-point range for 17 points. Layrock had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“We won’t let this loss affect us negatively for the rest of the season,” Moyer said. “We will use it as fuel so we hopefully won’t experience it again.”
The Lady Bison’s are currently 17-4 overall and 13-2 in the conference.
Their next home game is at home on Feb. 14 against Southeastern Oklahoma State at 1 p.m. in the Rhodes Field House.
