TULSA, Okla. - Jan. 24 - Southern Utah women's basketball opened the
second half on a 11-0 run, eventually tying the game for the first time
since the 9:28 mark in the first half, but free throws down the stretch
sealed the 59-64 defeat at Oral Roberts on Saturday afternoon. The
loss drops the T-Birds to 6-13 on the year and 2-6 in conference play,
while ORU moves to 10-9 with a 3-5 mark in The Summit League.
Both teams shot the ball very well over the first 20 minutes with SUU connecting on a 48 percent clip while the Golden Eagles shot 54.8 percent. The barrage led to five ties and six lead changes during the opening 13 minutes before ORU pulled together a 19-2 run over the final leg of the half to take a 41-27 lead into the locker rooms.
The momentum that Southern Utah had over the opening minutes of the first half diminished over the final leg as the T-Birds shot 3-of-10 from the field with five turnovers.
However, the beginning of the second half was a completely different story as the Thunderbirds roared to a 11-0 run over the first five minutes to trim the lead to 35-41, capped by two of Anne Westwood Higbee's five points over that span. Oral Roberts then found its shooting touch and kept the lead ranging from three to seven over the next seven minutes until a free throw from Higbee tied the game at 51-51 with 6:52 to play.
That was the closest Southern Utah reached to taking the lead as ORU hit a 3-point basket on the next possesion and then capitalized on an SUU turnover to put the lead back to five (56-51) and never looked back. In the end, the Golden Eagles survived the scare with the 64-59 victory.
Higbee led the T-Birds with 17 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Sophomore Challis Pascucci also recorded eight boards while turning in 14 points to join Higbee in double figures. Kaila Goff was the final player in double figures for the 'Birds with ten points and a game-high six assists.
ORU's Georgia Jones led all scorers with 21 points, with Janae Voelker collecting a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Southern Utah will be back in action on Monday night when the Thunderbirds face the Ladies of Centenary College. That game, being played in the Gold Dome, is scheduled to tip-off at 7:00 p.m.
