Overtime Thriller

2/23/2011 9:29:40 PM

Alex Richardson

Box Score

EDMOND (Feb. 23) -- Ashley Beckley and Alex Richardson combined to score nine of Central Oklahoma's 10 overtime points to rally the Bronchos past Lone Star Conference North Division rival Southwestern Oklahoma 76-71 Wednesday night at Hamilton Field House.

UCO never trailed in the extra session after Richardson scored an opening layup off a nifty inside pass from Britney Morgan and the junior center finished with six points in OT while Beckley added three.

The Bronchos won it with defense in the five-minute overtime, making five steals -- three by Beckley -- in pulling out the hard-earned victory in the home finale. UCO, now 18-7 on the season and 10-3 in the LSC North Division, finishes the regular season Saturday afternoon at Cameron.

“That was a big gut-check win for us,” UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. “We had a bunch of players step up and make key plays in crucial situations. It was really good to send Ashley out a winner because she's meant so much to this program the last four years.”

Beckley, the team's lone senior, had another splendid all-around outing in her final home game. She hit 9-of-16 shots from the field and 9-of-14 free throws in scoring a game-high 27 points while adding six steals, four rebounds and three assists.

Richardson also came up big with 21 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots, making 7-of-14 field goals and 7-of-10 foul shots. UCO also got 11 points and five assists from Morgan.

The Bronchos trailed 40-34 at halftime before coming back to lead by as many as five in the second half and regulation ended in a 66-all deadlock.

Richardson broke that 31 seconds into OT with a layup in traffic off Morgan's pass and Beckley followed a Courtney Allen steal with an inside bucket that made it 70-66 just 10 seconds later.

SWOSU got within one a couple of times, the final time at 72-71 with 2:07 remaining. Beckley made one of two free throws at 1:51 to make it 73-71 and then came up with a steal 20 seconds later, with the Bronchos eventually getting a layup from Richardson at 0:13 that upped the lead to 75-71.

Alyssa Fuxa made sure there would be dramatic last-second comeback by the Bulldogs, picking off an errant pass at 0:06 and making one free throw a second later to arrage the final margin.

UCO trailed most of the first half and was down eight on three occasions, pulling within six (40-34) at the break on Beckley's layup with 14 seconds remaining.

The Bronchos got back-to-back layups from Beckley and another from Fuxa in opening the second half with a 6-0 run to tie it at 40-all and went on to take their biggest lead at 53-48 on a Richardson free throw with 9:06 left.

SWOSU came back to tie it and went up 66-64 with 1:40 to go in regulation, with Beckley's layup at 1:19 forging the ninth tie of the second half. Neither team scored again, with the Bulldogs missing a 3-pointer and UCO a pair of free throws down the stretch to force overtime.

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