Box Score (html)
SEARCY, Ark. – Two years ago, Harding's Rhodes Field House was named the "Best Road Trip Destination in College Basketball," but the venue has been anything but that for the Lady Bulldog basketball team, who suffered a 105-69 defeat to No. 15 Harding on Saturday afternoon.
SWOSU started quickly, playing with great energy and shooting the ball well as they built a 24-16 lead less than eight minutes into the game. The Lady Bulldogs still held a 32-31 lead with just under six minutes to play in the half before Harding went on an 11-0 run in less than two minutes and the Lady Bisons never looked back from that point on. Harding led by as many as 17 in the first half and took a 54-39 lead to the break.
Matters only got worse for the Lady Bulldogs in the second half as they continued to struggle shooting the ball while Harding connected on nearly 50 percent (37-of-77) of their attempts for the game. The disparity was worse from 3-point range, where SWOSU hit just 2-of-24 (8%) long range attempts and the Lady Bisons knocked down 11-of-29 (38%) three-pointers.
Jennifer Williams led the Bulldogs in scoring for the second straight game with 24 points on 7-of-18 shooting while
Chelsea Bates added 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Korina Chapman was 8-for-8 from the free throw line and chipped in 13 points and six boards.
"We got off to a good start but then we lost some of our momentum later in the first half when we didn't execute defensively," SWOSU Head Coach
Kelsi Musick said during her postgame interview. "When you don't execute at the defensive end, it allows them to go on a run and we were unable to combat that. Harding has some great shooters and they came out hitting three-pointers when we couldn't get any to go and that hurt us. We are a new group and we're still learning to we've to go keep jelling and improve before our next game."
SWOSU's record evens out at 1-1 overall while they start the Great American Conference portion of their season 0-1. The Lady Bulldogs return to action on Tuesday with a regional matchup against in-state foe Central Oklahoma. Tip time is slated for 5:30 pm at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center in Weatherford.
