Scrappy Bronchos Fall To No. 7 Emporia State

3/6/2014 9:29:00 PM

Jill Bryan

Box Score

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (March 6) – Upset-minded Central Oklahoma spurted to a fast start, but No. 7-ranked Emporia State overpowered the Bronchos down the stretch to pull out a 77-68 victory in the quarterfinals of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Post-season Tournament here Thursday night.

UCO led by as many as 12 points in the first half and put up a fierce fight in its third game of the season against the Hornets, who beat the Bronchos by a combined 44 points in two regular season meetings.

In the end, it was ESU's dominance inside that was the difference as the Hornets outscored UCO 36-14 in the paint – including 24-8 in the second half – and improved to 26-3 in moving into Saturday's semifinals. The Bronchos ended their season at 12-16.

"I'm really proud of my girls," head coach Guy Hardaker said. "They played their hearts out tonight against one of the best teams in the country and we had a chance to win the game.

"We stayed with 'em and I hoped we'd get a chance to maybe have panic set in on them a little, but they kind of wore us down with how physical they are inside. We had some bad possessions in the second half and really a lot of that was fatigue from having to play such a physical team."

The Bronchos ended up shooting just 31.7 percent (19-of-60) for the game, including a mere 22.6 percent (7-of-31) in the second half, while also committing 22 turnovers.

Seniors Britney Morgan and Jill Bryan led the way in their final game with the Bronchos. Morgan hit five 3-pointers in scoring 15 points, while Bryan had 12 points, four rebounds and four assists in becoming just the 11^th player in school history with 1,000 career points.

Julia Mason added 11 points and seven rebounds.

UCO led 36-33 at halftime, but the Hornets quickly tied it at 40 early in the second half, went on to grab a 55-50 lead and appeared ready to take control.

Morgan stemmed the momentum with a long 3-pointer from the wing to make it 55-53 and the game was tied 59-59 after two Jill Bryan free throws at 6:31. ESU pulled away again to a 65-59 lead before UCO came back to get within two at 67-65 on two Hayley Bryan foul shots at the 3:51 mark.

The Bronchos could get no closer, however, missing their next three shots as the Hornets finally put the game away.

UCO got off to a hot start, hitting six of its first 10 attempts from beyond the arc.

Jill Bryan's corner trey broke an early 5-5 tie and the lead was 21-11 eight minutes into the game when Morgan drilled another 3-pointer from the corner. Olivia Mason's back-door layup off a nifty pass from Marley Anderson gave UCO its largest lead at 23-11 with 11:48 left in the opening half.

Haley Weathers' steal and fast-break three-point play still had the Bronchos up by double digits at 26-15 with 9:30 remaining, but ESU ended the half with an 18-10 run to make it 36-33 at intermission.

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