Box Score
EDMOND (Jan. 31) -- Defense more than made up for Central Oklahoma's poor outside shooting performance Saturday afternoon at Hamilton Field House as the No. 16-ranked Bronchos rolled past Lone Star Conference North Division rival Cameron 74-50.
UCO made just 7-of-36 attempts (19.4 percent) from beyond the arc, but came up with a school-record 24 steals while forcing 32 turnovers and limited the Aggies to 38.0-percent shooting from the field to stay atop the LSC North standings.
It was the fifth straight win for the Bronchos, who improved to 15-3 overall and 5-0 in the division. Cameron fell to 5-14 and 0-6.
"We didn't shoot the ball very well, but we forced a lot of turnovers and played good defense," UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. "We were really active on the defensive end and that was the key for us today."
The Bronchos scored 39 points off CU turnovers and four players had at least three steals for UCO.
Ashley Beckley scored a team-high 16 points, while Cristina Yarbrough added 13 points and four assists and Mallory Markus 11 points and four steals. The Bronchos also got eight points, seven steals, seven rebounds, four blocked shots and four assists from Lizzie Brenner and nine rebounds and five steals from Krista Beaty.
UCO trailed only once in the game, at 5-3 in the opening two minutes. A Beckley layup and Yarbrough 3-pointer quickly put the Bronchos on top 8-5 and it became a 10-point cushion at 19-9 on a Kasey Tweed jumper with 11:29 left in the half.
Cameron tried to stay close and got within six (23-17) at the 6:18 mark of the opening half, but Courtney Allen drained a long 3-pointer from the wing to start a 10-0 run that pushed the advantage to 16 (33-17) and UCO went on to a 35-21 halftime lead.
The Aggies trailed 37-24 early in the second half when Markus hit a 3-pointer followed by back-to-back layups by Yarbrough and Beckley to make it 44-24 and CU got no closer than 15 the rest of the way.
UCO continues its LSC North schedule Monday with a 7 p.m. game at Texas Woman's and then returns home to host Northeastern State Wednesday at 6 p.m.
