Bronchos Fall In OT To Washburn

1/23/2014 8:01:00 PM

Julia Mason

Box Score

TOPEKA, Kan. (Jan. 23) – Central Oklahoma missed 14 layups – including one in the final seconds of regulation – and dropped a tough 65-59 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics decision to Washburn here Thursday night.

The Bronchos led by eight at halftime, fell behind by five in the second half and then came back to tie it in the final minute before Olivia Mason's potential game-winning inside bucket in the final seconds failed to drop.

The Ichabods never trailed in the five-minute extra session in handing UCO its first OT loss since the 2008-09 season. The Bronchos fell to 10-7 overall and 5-5 in the league, while WU improved to 11-5 and 6-3.

"We played hard and gave ourselves a great chance to win to pick up a great road win, but came up just a little short," head coach Guy Hardaker said. "We didn't shoot the ball very well and missed a lot of layups that really hurt us."

UCO shot just 30.4 percent (21-of-69) from the field, hitting only 7-of-32 attempts (21.9 percent) from 3-point range.

Julia Mason scored a season-high 19 points to lead the Bronchos while adding 10 rebounds. Freshman Olivia Mason also had a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

UCO led 31-23 at intermission and went up 35-25 early in the second half on a Julia Mason layup. Washburn responded with 11 unanswered points to take a 36-35 lead at the 11:23 mark as the Bronchos missed nine straight shots and the Ichabods went on to take a 50-45 lead with 3:58 left to play.

Julia Mason's layup at 3:30 and 3-pointer at 2:50 tied it at 50-all before WU hit a trey with 2:19 remaining. Julia Mason came through again with a layup at 1:50 to make it 53-52 and the sophomore standout made one of two free throws with 1:15 left to tie it.

Neither team scored again to arrange OT and the Ichabods took the lead for good early in the five-minute extra period. WU led 61-55 with 2:16 remaining before layups by Haley Weathers and Olivia Mason pulled the Bronchos within 61-59 at 1:11, but UCO missed its last three shots.

The first half went back-and-forth throughout and the Bronchos trailed 23-22 before going on a 9-0 run in the final 2:40.

Chelsea Robinson started that surge with a layup, Jordan Ward followed with a steal and fast-break bucket, Olivia Mason hit a 3-pointer after rebounding a WU miss and Hayley Bryan made a layup with five seconds left to give UCO its 31-23 halftime advance.

The Bronchos return to action Sunday, traveling to Emporia, Kan. to take on No. 2-ranked Emporia State at 1:30 p.m. in another league tilt.

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