Bronchos Miss Against NSU

2/21/2011 9:05:22 PM

Alex Richardson

Box Score

EDMOND (Feb. 21) -- It was the same song, second verse for Central Oklahoma in Monday night's Lone Star Conference North Division showdown with No. 6-ranked Northeastern State at Hamilton Field House.

The Bronchos had their second-worst shooting performance of the season -- trailing only the first meeting with NSU two weeks earlier -- and dropped a physical 68-53 decision in the battle of LSC North co-leaders.

UCO shot only 29.3 percent (17-of-58) overall and just 13.0 percent (3-of-23) from beyond the 3-point line in having a seven-game home winning streak stopped. The Bronchos missed their last 16 long-range shots and went 0-of-12 in the second half.

UCO fell to 16-8 overall and 9-3 in the North Division, while the RiverHawks improved to 21-3 on the year and 10-2 in the league. The Bronchos wrap up the home schedule Wednesday, hosting Southwestern Oklahoma at 6 p.m.

"It was a tough game and again we couldn't get many shots to fall," head coach Guy Hardaker said. "We did some things defensively to give us a chance, but just didn't get it done."

Alex Richardson was the only UCO player to have much success shooting the ball, htting 7-of-9 shots in finishing with 14 points. Britney Morgan also had 14 points, but she was just 4-of-15 from the field, including 2-of-10 from 3-point range.

Ashley Beckley, the leading scorer in the LSC with a 20.3 average entering the game, was held to a season-low 11 while making just 3-of-14 shots. And Courtney Allen, who was shooting 45 percent from long range before tip-off, went 1-of-8 from beyond the arc in scoring three points.

Despite all that misfiring, the Bronchos trailed by just six points (46-40) with 11:16 left to play after a Morgan fast-break layup in traffic and it was an eight-point deficit (50-42) following a Beckley layup at the 8:28 mark.

But the RiverHawks answered with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to double digits at 53-42 and UCO got no closer than 10 the rest of the way.

NSU charged out to a seven-point lead at 17-10 six minutes into the game and appeared on the verge of a blowout, but the Bronchos responded with 10 unanswered points to surge in front. Richardson started that run with back-to-back inside buckets and Morgan ended it with a layup that gave UCO a 20-17 lead with 8:59 remaining in the half.

A RiverHawk trey quickly tied it and it was deadlocked again at 25-all after a Morgan 3-pointer with 5:02 left before NSU ended the half with an 8-1 run to take a 33-26 lead into intermission.

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