Oakland Scores Home Victory in Final Tune-Up
Women’s Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 4)
Oakland 86, Rochester College 39
South Dakota 74, Cleveland State 70
IUPUI 66, Youngstown State 57
Tulsa 84, Valparaiso 70
Oakland 86, Rochester College 39
Bethany Watterworth had a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds to lead the Oakland women's basketball team over Rochester College (6-11), 86-39, Saturday afternoon at the Athletics Center O'rena. Heading into league play, Oakland improves to 4-3 at home and 5-8 during the non-conference season.
Watterworth moved into fifth place in school history with five free throws to give her 331 for her career. Elena Popkey added 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and Olivia Nash scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
The Golden Grizzlies used a dominant second half to earn the victory as they outscored the Warriors 44-8. Oakland held Rochester College to just 3-of-21 shooting while going 17-of-40 from the floor. The eight points is the fewest allowed by the Golden Grizzlies in a half since Jan. 2, 2008 when Oakland held Rochester College to eight points in the second half of a 99-19 victory. Nash scored eight of her 11 points in the second half while Nola Anderson added seven points in the second period.
Oakland led 42-31 in the half as Watterworth score 11 of her 15 points in the opening half. It was a close game early on until Oakland went on an 8-0 run to go up 24-13 and led by as many as 14 points in the opening period. Oakland had nine players score at least two points in the half
Oakland finished the game setting season highs with 26 steals and forcing 33 turnovers. Oakland outscored Rochester College 44-8 in points in the paint, 40-6 off of turnovers and 22-0 in fastbreak points.
The Golden Grizzlies will begin league play next week as they travel to Dayton, Ohio to take on Wright State on Wednesday, Jan. 8 in their first-ever Horizon League match up. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET inside the Nutter Center and is available on the Horizon League Network.
South Dakota 74, Cleveland State 70
Despite a strong second half performance, the Cleveland State women's basketball team came up short against South Dakota Saturday afternoon, falling to the Coyotes 74-70. The Vikings are now 5-8 on the season, while South Dakota improves to 9-6.
Kiersten Green was just shy of her career-high with 26 points against South Dakota to lead the Vikings, while Cori Coleman notched 17 points, marking her fifth straight double-digit game. The trio of Imani Gordon, Adesuwa Aideyman, and Khayla Livingston all added seven points each for the Vikings. Along with her seven points, Gordon also tallied a game-high 12 rebounds – her third double-digit rebounding game of the season.
After going into the halftime break trailing by six-points (34-28), the Vikings opened the second half on a 13-7 run, gaining their first lead since the opening minutes of the contest at the 41-40 mark. The lead wouldn't last long though, as South Dakota regained the advantage on the following possession and then went on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 51-41 with 13:08 remaining.
Over the next 5:47 CSU was able to chip away at the lead, closing the gap to three-points (57-54) following back-to-back baskets from Green and Livingston with just over seven minutes left to play. The Coyotes responded with an 8-2 run of their own, regaining a nine-point lead at the 65-56 mark with 3:38 left to play.
The two teams traded baskets over the next two minutes then, until a pair of Gordon free throws brought the Vikings within four points (70-66) with just 32 seconds left in the contest.
Both teams were forced to foul throughout the closing seconds, with South Dakota going 4-for-8 from the free throw line, and the Vikings going 2-for-4, as the Coyotes closed out the four-point victory.
The Vikings, who arrived in Vermillion, S.D. just eight hours prior to the game because of weather conditions, shot 42-percent from the floor (25-for-59), and grabbed 33 rebounds – including 15 offensive boards.
Cleveland State will open up Horizon League play when the Vikings return to action on Thursday, traveling to Detroit for a 7:00 p.m. ET contest on the Horizon League Network.
IUPUI 66, Youngstown State 57
The Youngstown State women's basketball kept fighting to catch IUPUI, but the Penguins could never catch the Jaguars falling 66-57 on Saturday afternoon at the Beeghly Center.
YSU fell behind early in the contest and on two occasions trimmed the deficit to one in the first half and rallied to within two points with 6:39 remaining in the game, but could never get over the hump.
The defeat drops the Penguins to 4-9 on the year while IUPUI is 10-5.
Leading the way for the Penguins was Heidi Schlegel who scored a game-high 22 points. Liz Hornberger scored 19 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Latisha Walker had 10 points and six rebounds for YSU.
After trailing by seven at halftime, YSU was down by nine, but never closed the deficit under three until Hornberger canned a 3-pointer with 6:39 left to pull the Penguins within 47-45. But IUPUI answered with four straight points and had seven of the next eight to build a 55-46 cushinon with just under five minutes remaining.
From that point the Penguins were never able to get the deficit under seven the rest of the way. IUPUI used solid free-throw shooting making seven-of-eight chances in the final 1:27.
For the game, YSU shot 45.3 percent (24-of-53), which included a 3-of-16 performance from behind the 3-point arc. IUPUI shot 43.4 percent, including just 34.5 percent in the second half. The Jaguars were 17-of-19 from the free-throw line in the contest while the Penguins missed seven of 13 attempts.
Leading the way for IUPUI was DeAirra Gross who had 17 points while Akilah Sims and Nevena Markovich each finished with 16.
IUPUI grabbed the lead at the 18:01 mark of the first half and didn't trail the remainder of the period or the game. The Jaguars led 17-8 with 12:50 left before Schlegel went to work scoring seven straight YSU points in a 50-second span to trim the deficit to 17-14. Schlegel knocked down a 3-pointer and then had two straight steals-to-layups to pull the Penguins within three points.
From that point the Penguins were able to pull as close as one on two separate occasions.
At the 7:56 mark, Latisha's Walker pulled YSU to within 22-21 following a layup and nice spin move to the hoop by Ashley Lawson made the score 28-27 with 4:51 left.
However that was the Penguins' final points of the opening half as IUPUI scored the last six points to lead 34-27 at the break.
Up to the four-minute mark, YSU was connecting at a 56.5 percent clip from the field and settled for 50 percent shooting in the opening half making 13-of-26 shots. The Penguins were 12-of-18 from inside the 3-point arc. IUPUI shot 54.2 percent (13-of-24) in the opening half and had a six-point advantage from the free-throw line.
Schlegel, Walker and Hornberger had 23 of the Penguins' 27 points while going 11-of-14 from the floor.
YSU opens Horizon League play on Thursday at Valparaiso. Tipoff at the ARC is set for 8 p.m. ET on the Horizon League Network.
Tulsa 84, Valparaiso 70
After an up-and-down first half, Valparaiso and Liz Horton exploded in the second half. Unfortunately, by the time both find their stride, the deficit was too wide.
Horton netted a career-high 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting (5-for-6 3-pointers). The senior opened the scoring for the Crusaders in the second half with her first trey of the game. She stayed quiet until the six-minute mark. With Valparaiso facing its largest margin of the afternoon at 69-49, Horton knocked down a three on a dish from Charae Richardson with 5:55 to play. The deep ball was her first on three consecutive Crusader possessions spanning one minute and 16 seconds. Horton sunk her fifth and final three-pointer of the day with just over a minute to play.
The second half was a stark contrast from the first. Tulsa scored the first seven points of the game. Valparaiso rattled off a 7-0 run of its own, tying the game at 7-7, 9-9, and 11-11. All six of Richardson's first-half points came in the first seven minutes to even up the contest. Tulsa went on a 18-6 run over the next nine minutes to establish a healthy lead.
Tulsa's Kadan Brady entered Saturday's contest averaging 5.6 points per game. The junior dropped nine points in the first ten minutes and ended the half with 11. The Crusaders shot 32% (10-for-27) from the field in the first stanza, but just 1-of-9 from three-point land. The Golden Hurricane capitalized on 12 first-half turnovers committed by the Brown and Gold as they led 33-24 at the break.
Valparaiso battled in the onset of the second half but was unable to make it a two-possession game at any point. Abby Dean dialed up a three at the 18:28 mark to cut the deficit to seven, but it was as close as the Crusaders came. An 18-7 Tulsa run followed before Richardson brought an end to the rush. The Golden Hurricane pushed their lead to 20 and appeared to be on their way to more before Horton's deep-ball exhibition.
Tulsa retained its double-digit lead for the entirety of the game. The Golden Hurricane hung on by a final score of 84-70 to improve to 4-1 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
Richardson finished with 18 points for the second time in the past three games. The fifth-year senior also contributed eight assists. Horton's career-best 20 points tied her with Tulsa's Ashley Clark for the game's scoring leader. Dean assembled a 14-point afternoon on 5-of-12 shooting. Saturday was her sixth game in double digits for Valparaiso this season.
With non-conference play in the rear view mirror, the Crusaders (2-11) prepare for Horizon League play. Youngstown State (4-8) comes to town Thursday evening for an 8:05 p.m. ET tilt with the game available on the Horizon League Network.
