OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University fought back from a two-point halftime deficit to storm back with a 93-59 beating of Oklahoma Baptist to remain perfect on the season on Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena.
The Stars (16-0, 11-0), ranked second in NAIA Division I women’s basketball, played the pace of the Lady Bison in the first half. OCU found themselves in a grind it out game with 15 lead changes and four ties in the first 20 minutes of play.
OCU was led by Donica Cosby, a senior from Coldwater, Miss., who had team-highs with 19 points and five assists. Cosby scored 17 second half points to break open the close contest. Starr Fairbanks, a senior from Cincinnati, dropped in 17 points and went up for a team-high six rebounds for OCU. Lauren Gober, a sophomore from Newcastle, Okla., added 12 points, five rebounds and a game-high five steals on her birthday. All 12 OCU players on the roster found the scoreboard.
“I just locked in at halftime and I said you’re undefeated and in about 20 minutes you may not be undefeated. It’s going to be up to you,” OCU coach Rob Edmisson said. “You either put your effort and energy into it or it just stays like it did. From the first tip of the second half you could tell and I thought our kids presented that energy.”
The Stars opened up the second half in a pressure defense that resulted in a Gober steal and Cosby 3-point basket on ensuing possessions. This deadly combination gave OCU the four point lead with 18:38 to play. OCU never looked back after grabbing the second half scoring advantage early in the period.
The Stars used 14-2 and 15-4 runs to break open the lead and had the 77-51 advantage with 5:36 remaining. OCU closed on a 16-3 run in the final 3:58 to seal the 34-point win.
“At halftime Coach Edmisson said he wanted this game to test our maturity level which was a good thing,” Cosby said. “The start of the second half was a big turning point in the game. I felt like all we needed is a little boost, and once we get going it’s kind of hard to slow us down.”
Early going, the contest was played at a pace that favored the Lady Bison and Gabriell Mattox had 17 of Oklahoma Baptist’s 30 first half points. The Lady Bison began the game on a 6-0 run to grab its largest lead of the night 1:11 into the action. The Stars only found the basket on 31.3 percent of their attempts in the first period and found themselves in an unfamiliar circumstance of trailing 30-28 at the midpoint break.
“It all came down to energy,” Edmisson said. “In the first half we weren’t playing with any energy, and we were a step behind on everything. Our traps were slow, our rotations were slow and Gabriell Mattox was just eating our lunch doing whatever she wanted.”
Mattox ended the night with a game-high 20 points, but only managed three in the second half.
The Stars finished the night leading the hustle categories by wide margins, including scoring 46 points off of 33 forced turnovers.
OCU owned the 19-3 second-chance point and 19-0 fast-break point advantages and outrebounded the Lady Bison 36-24 in the game.
The Stars put in 64.1 percent of their second half shot attempts and scored more second half points than Oklahoma Baptist could muster throughout the entirety of the game.
“I’m really proud of the kids to come back second half and put up 65 points in the half,” Edmisson said. “That’s pretty impressive.”
OCU continues through conference play Saturday as the team heads to St. Gregory’s and the W.P. Wood Fieldhouse in Shawnee, Okla., for a 3 p.m. tipoff.
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