UCO Heads To Kansas City For MIAA Quarterfinals

3/2/2016 10:45:00 AM

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BRONCHOS TO KANSAS CITY
Central Oklahoma makes its third consecutive trip to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Post-season Tournament quarterfinals Thursday when the Bronchos take on No. 20-ranked Emporia State.

Tip-off at Municipal Auditorium is 8:15 p.m.

Fifth-seeded UCO is 19-10 on the season, while the No. 4-seeded Hornets are 23-5.

The Bronchos advanced to the quarterfinals with an 71-56 home win over 12th-seeded Lindenwood Monday. ESU received a first-round bye.

Other quarterfinal games Thursday have top-seeded Missouri Western playing No. 8-seed Nebraska-Kearney, second-seeded Pittsburg State going against No. 10 Central Missouri and third-seeded Fort Hays State facing Missouri Southern.

The PSU/UCM-FHSU/MSSU winners meet in Saturday's semifinals at 12 p.m., with the MWSU/UNK-UCO/ESU winners going at 2:15. Sunday's championship game is at 1 p.m., with the winner earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II national tournament.

UCO IN THE MIAA TOURNEY
The Bronchos are 3-2 in the MIAA Post-season Tournament, having advanced to the quarterfinals each of the past three years.

UCO didn't qualify in its first year in the league in 2012-13 and then knocked off Lindenwood 85-79 on the road in the first round in 2013-14 before falling to Emporia State 77-68 in the quarterfinals.

The Bronchos lost to Pittsburg State 78-71 in last year's quarterfinals after beating Nebraska-Kearney 90-70 at home in the first round. UCO won its third straight first-round game Monday, 71-56 over Lindenwood.

UCO vs. ESU
The Hornets own a 17-4 series lead over the Bronchos and have won the last nine meetings. UCO's last win in the rivalry came during the 2007-08 season (71-66).

ESU won 74-63 in Edmond on Jan. 7 and 68-59 at home on Feb. 17 in two regular season meetings this year.

FIRST-ROUND RECAP
UCO used a devastating fourth-quarter scoring run to overcome a three-point deficit and run away from Lindenwood 71-56 in Monday's first-round home game.

The Bronchos trailed 50-47 early in the fourth quarter when Jordan Ward hit back-to-back 3-pointers to ignite a 20-0 spurt. UCO made 6-of-7 shots from beyond the arc in that run to take a 67-50 lead and coasted in.

McKenzie Solberg scored a game-high 21 points, Olivia Mason had a season-best 17 points and eight rebounds and Julia Mason added 10 points. Ward had seven assists and six points.

UCO IN CONFERENCE STATS
The Bronchos rank second in the MIAA in free throw percentage (77.0) and are in the top five in seven other team statistical categories. UCO is third in field goal percentage defense (38.8), 3-pointers/game (7.5), assists/game (14.31) and steals/game (8.86), fourth in turnover margin (plus-2.5) and fifth in 3-point percentage (36.2) and scoring (70.6).

BRONCHO NOTES
• UCO's 19 wins are the most since 2010-11, when the Bronchos went 22-10 in making it to the Division II Sweet 16.

• Three players with at least 48 free throw attempts are shooting 80-plus percent from the line -- junior Olivia Mason (83.9, 52-of-62), junior Marley Anderson (83.3, 40-of-48) and senior McKenzie Solberg (82.4, 136-of-165).

• The Bronchos have made at least four 3-pointers in all 29 games this season and have had four games with 10-plus treys, making a season-high 15 in an 82-64 road win over Lincoln on Dec. 12. UCO has shot 47.4 percent (28-of-49) from 3-point range in the last three games.

• Senior McKenzie Solberg leads the team and ranks eighth in the league in scoring with a 16.1 average. She's scored 20-plus points in eight games with a career-high 36 coming in an early-season win over Northwestern Oklahoma.

• Solberg ranks seventh on UCO's' single-season points list (468) and 18th on the career points chart (892). She's also sixth in single-season free throws made (136) and ninth in single-season free throws attempted (165).

• Senior Julia Mason has averaged 14.5 points a game in the last six contests while shooting 48.5 percent (33-of-68) from the field to raise her season average to 10.6, second-best on the team. She has moved into 16th place on UCO's career scoring list with 925 points.

• Junior Olivia Mason has averaged 11.7 points and 8.0 rebounds in the last three games while shooting 63.2 percent (12-of-19) from the field, including 66.7 percent (6-of-9) from 3-point range. She averages 8.2 points and a team-high 5.7 rebounds a game and now ranks sixth on the school's all-time rebounding list with 479.

• Senior Haley Weathers has made a team-high 52 3-pointers and is shooting 45.6 percent from beyond the arc in averaging 8.3 points a game. She's made three-plus treys in nine games this season.

• Senior Jordan Ward ranks eighth in the MIAA in assists with 3.6 a game, having handed out 101 on the season. She's had five-plus assists in nine games.

ABOUT THE COACH
• Guy Hardaker has a 183-111 record in his 10th year as head coach at his alma mater.

• Hardaker took over the UCO helm in 2006 and has led the Bronchos to the only four Division II national tournament appearances in school history -- including Sweet 16 berths in 2009 and '11 -- and four 20-win seasons.

• Hardaker was a three-year baseball standout for the Bronchos in the early 1980s and was inducted into the UCO Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.

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