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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

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Shatoya Bryson
61
Central Oklahoma UCO 11-5, 2-4 MIAA
81
Winner Fort Hays State FHSU 15-0, 6-0 MIAA
Central Oklahoma UCO
11-5, 2-4 MIAA
61
Final
81
Fort Hays State FHSU
15-0, 6-0 MIAA
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Central Oklahoma UCO 10 18 9 24 61
Fort Hays State FHSU 24 13 23 21 81

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | Chris Brannick

Central Oklahoma Stumbles At Fort Hays State

HAYS, Kan. - The University of Central Oklahoma women's basketball team lost 81-61 to No. 4 Fort Hays State Saturday afternoon in a Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association game at Gross Memorial Coliseum.

Ireon Smith scored 11 points and Shatoya Bryson added 10 for the Bronchos, and UCO hit 10 3-pointers on the day, but it wasn't enough to keep pace with Hays.

"We needed to play a really good game today because Fort Hays State is a really good basketball team and it's pretty hard to come up here and win a game," UCO head women's basketball coach Guy Hardaker said. "But we just didn't shoot the ball well early and we had too many turnovers and when you dig a hole against a good team, it's really hard to get out of that."

The Bronchos are now 11-5 on the season and 2-4 in league play.

Central Oklahoma came out ready to fight, going back and forth with the fourth-ranked Tigers in the first quarter. UCO held an early lead. Bryson gave the Bronchos a 3-2 lead with a first-quarter 3-pointer. The Bronchos led again 6-4 before Hays took the lead for good. The teams continued to play close before a 9-0 run by the home team gave FHSU a big 24-10 lead to end the quarter.

UCO kept punching in the second quarter. After a slow start that saw a 14-point deficit grow to 18, the Bronchos would go on to shoot 8-for-14 from the floor in the quarter and knocked down a pair of shots from behind the arc. That paired with a late struggling shooting effort from Fort Hays kept the Bronchos close. UCO won the second quarter 18-13 to close the gap at halftime to nine points, 37-28.

Central didn't shoot any free-throws in the first half, compared to Hays' 10-for-10 performance at the line, but the Bronchos began working their way there in the third quarter. However, UCO didn't shoot it as well overall from the field and Hays began to pull away. A 10-0 run right in the middle of the quarter sparked a 20-point lead, 55-35, with still a few minutes to play in the quarter. The Bronchos got outscored 23-9 in the quarter.

Central Oklahoma outscored Fort Hays 24-21 in the final 10 minutes, knocking down five treys on 8-for-15 shooting to close the game out. 

Micayla Haynes added nine points, Madison Lee four, and Blake Blessington two for the Broncho starters. Megan Hartness scored eight points off the bench, Kaci Richardson and Lauren Chancellor each had six, and McKenna Pulley scored five. Richardson went 3-for-5 in nine minutes of play, making her return to the court after and 11-game absence due to injury.

Haynes led the Bronchos with three 3-pointers Saturday. Hartness and Chancellor each made two, and Bryson, Smith, and Pulley all hit one from outside.

Central Oklahoma returns home from a short, two-game road trip and now looks to get back on track against Pittsburg State Thursday, Jan. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in Hamilton Field House. 
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