WEATHERFORD – The SWOSU women's basketball team hosted Oklahoma City University for their 2023-24 home opener on Tuesday night. After surviving a late comeback attempt by the Stars, SWOSU won 56-52.
SWOSU improves to 2-1 on the year after the win. This weekend they will head to Lubbock, Texas for the Lone Star Conference Crossover. They'll matchup against host Lubbock Christian at 6:00 pm on Friday, November 17 for their next game.
The Lady Dawgs jumped out to an early lead against the Stars. 12 first quarter turnovers by the opposition sparked a 17-9 advantage for SWOSU after the first 10 minutes of play. SWOSU gained their biggest lead of the night, 11 points, with 3:52 left in the first half and was primed to hold a hefty lead at halftime. OCU then went on a 9-3 to end the half and the Lady Bulldogs lead was just six at the break.
The second half was full of runs. SWOSU extended the lead back to nine with some stellar defense. The Stars got a couple stops and a couple buckets to trim it back to three points with 1:04 remaining in the third quarter. A
Rees Berkey layup put SWOSU up 54-43 with 4:48 until the final buzzer sounded, but again, the Stars wouldn't go away.
They closed the gap back to just four points late in the fourth and gave themselves some momentum.
Averi Zinn stole that momentum with two clutch free throws to seal the game for the Bulldogs with 38 seconds to play.
SWOSU forced a new season high 30 OCU turnovers and needed all of them to fend the Stars off. The Lady Bulldogs shot 21-74 (28.4%) overall and 5-26 (19.2%) from deep. Despite the close score, SWOSU led for 38 minutes and 17 seconds.
Averi Zinn had a team high 17 points, adding five assists and four steals.
Mason Jones scored 12 points, shooting 3-5 from three, and grabbed four rebounds in the win.
