Box Score
EDMOND (Feb. 28) -- Lance Harper and Michael Sosanya controlled the inside to guide No. 7-ranked Central Oklahoma past Southwestern Oklahoma 76-68 Saturday night at Hamilton Field House as the Bronchos sewed up the outright Lone Star Conference North Division title.
UCO entered the regular season and home finale needing a win to stay ahead of the Bulldogs in the division standings and prevailed in the physical contest to claim the LSC North crown for the fourth time in five years.
Harper scored 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting while adding nine rebounds despite being plagued by foul trouble and playing just 26 mintues, while Sosanya had 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench to lead UCO to a 37-26 rebounding advantage.
The Bronchos improved to 23-4 overall and ended up 10-2 in the North Division, while SWOSU dropped to 17-10 and 8-4. UCO will be the No. 1 seed for the North in next week's LSC Tournament and will take on Tarleton State in a first-round game at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in Bartlesville, Okla.
"It was an ugly game, but we did what we needed to do," UCO coach Terry Evans said. "We didn't shoot well from outside and couldn't hit our free throws, but we played pretty good defense and did a good job on the boards. It feels great to win the North Division again and now we just need to get ready for nex week."
The Bronchos shot 51.9 percent (28-of-54) from the field, despite hitting just 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) from 3-point range. UCO scored 44 of its 76 points in the paint and shot only 58.6 percent (17-of-29) from the foul line.
SWOSU grabbed an early 5-0 lead before DeAngelo Garrett scored inside to ignite a 9-0 run that put the Bronchos in front and the rugged first half went back-and-forth most of the way. Garrett broke a 24-24 tie on a short jumper with 2:32 left to put UCO in front for good and Sosanya's last-second bucket made it 30-26 at intermission.
The Bulldogs stayed close the first 10 minutes of the second half and were still within four at 49-45 after a Clarke Hale 3-pointer. The Bronchos finally got a little breathing room with a 5-0 spurt that made it 57-47 at the 6:26 mark and David Thomas hit a big 3-pointer from the top of the key at 5:13 to up the cushion to 12 (62-50).
UCO's lead peaked at 14 (69-55) on a Harper layup with 2:44 left to play and SWOSU couldn't get any closer than the final margin.
