Bronchos Rally

12/30/2009 4:45:24 PM

Alyssa Fuxa

Game Statistics

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Dec. 30) – Cristina Yarbrough scored 15 of her career-high 21 points in the second half to spark Central Oklahoma to a come-from-behind 83-73 triumph over Incarnate Word here Wednesday afternoon on the second day of the St. Mary's Classic.

The Bronchos overcame a horrible first-half shooting effort and a 10-point second-half deficit in winning their third straight game, outscoring the Cardinals 38-18 over the final 12-plus minutes in improving to 7-3 on the season.

Yarbrough had back-to-back layups to cap a 16-3 run that turned a 55-45 UIW lead with 12:45 remaining into a 61-58 UCO advantage at the 7:31 mark and the Bronchos went 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the last two minutes to win going away.

“I'm proud of the way we kept battling even when we weren't making any shots and things weren't going our way,” UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. “We stayed focused, kept playing hard and pulled out a really good win.”

Yarbrough made 8-of-12 shots, including her only 3-point try, and all four free throw tries in her career-best 21-point outing while adding five rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Jordan Stark had 16 points, eight rebounds and three steals, Alyssa Fuxa come off the bench to score a career-high 14 points and Ashley Beckley added 14 points.

The Bronchos had two entirely different halves shooting the ball. UCO was just 14-of-40 (35.0 percent) from the field in the first half, including 1-of-11 (9.1 percent) from 3-point range, before bouncing back to shoot 62.5 percent (15-of-24) overall and 85.7 percent (6-of-7) from long range in the final 20 minutes.

Incarnate Word led most of the first half, but the Bronchos got within four (36-32) at intermission on Fuxa's layup with four seconds left.

The Cardinals pushed that lead to nine several times in the early going of the second half before their lead peaked at 10 (55-45) with 12:45 left to play and that's when UCO took over.

Brianne Grisham ignited the game-turning 16-3 scoring spurt with a 3-pointer, Savannah Hamilton scored five straight points and Yarbrough's consecutive layups off UIW turnovers put the Bronchos on top 61-58 with 7:31 left.

It was still a three-point lead at 69-66 in the final three minutes when Yarbrough drained a trey and Stark sandwiched a pair of UIW buckets with two free throws and a 3-pointer to make it 77-70 at the 1:31 mark.

That forced the Cardinals to foul and UCO thwarted the strategy as Yarbrough made four straight foul shots and Stark two to put the game away.

UCO returns to Lone Star Conference crossover play and makes its long-awaited home debut next week, hosting Texas A&M-Kingsville at 6 p.m. Tuesday to open a three-game homestand.

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