Bronchos Rally Past Angelo State

11/17/2012 5:46:00 PM

Jill Bryan

Box Score

DENTON, Texas (Nov. 17) – Jill Bryan broke out of an early-season shooting slump to score 19 points and Rachel New hit a big 3-pointer down the stretch to spur Central Oklahoma past Angelo State 67-64 here Saturday on the first day of the Marriott Champions Circle Pioneer Premiere.

The Bronchos overcame a nine-point second-half deficit in pulling out their second straight win of the young season after an opening loss and will return to action Sunday with a 4 p.m. contest against host Texas Woman's.

“We made some big plays the last 10 minutes of the game and came out with a good win,” UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. “We had a couple of good defensive stops and made some big buckets when we really needed them."

Bryan made just 5-of-16 shots in UCO's first two games, but the junior sharpshooter was 6-of-9 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers and hit all five free throw tries in her 19-point outing while adding eight rebounds.

The Bronchos also got 14 points and eight rebounds from Alyssa Fuxa, while Britney Morgan added 11 points and Hayley Bryan 10.

New had five points and it was her 3-pointer with 4:45 left to play that gave the Bronchos a lead it would never relinquish at 60-58. The Rambelles came back to tie it with 3:58 left to play, but Fuxa's conventional three-point play made it 63-60 at 3:26.

Neither team scored again until Bryan hit a pair of free throws at 1:19 to up the lead to 65-60 and UCO survived some tense moments the rest of the way.

An ASU bucket with 1:11 left cut the lead to 65-62 and the Bronchos then turned the ball over, but the Rambelles were off the mark on two tying 3-point tries and Fuxa was fouled rebounding the second miss with nine seconds remaining.

She made both clutch foul shots to bump the cushion back to five at 67-62 before the Rambelles scored a meaningless basket at the buzzer.

UCO fell behind 7-2 in the opening minutes of the game before roaring back with a 17-4 run to take a 19-11 lead on Hayley Bryan's layup midway through the opening half.

ASU responded with a scoring spurt of its own en route to take a 34-30 halftime advantage and the Rambelles were up nine at 41-32 with 17:59 left to play.

UCO started its comeback with a 7-0 run by the Bryan sisters – four by Hayley, a 3-pointer by Jill – that made it 41-39 and it was close the rest of the way.

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