Women's Basketball 11/29/2013 11:42:00 PM

OCU nudges past Xavier 72-70 in overtime

Second-ranked Stars defeat 15th-ranked Xavier

Kayla MacKenzie provided OCU with 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals Friday.

Box Score
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University pulled out a 72-70 overtime win over Xavier (La.) on Friday at Abe Lemons Arena in the Capital City Classic.
Autumn Lau's free throws made the difference for the Stars, and Ouleymatou Coulibaly prevented Xavier from getting off a final shot by knocking the ball away as time expired. OCU, ranked second in NAIA Division I women's basketball, improved to 3-0.
OCU scored the first six points of the overtime period. Cara Pugh nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing to jumpstart OCU's offense, then Lau added three free throws. Lau hit the second of a pair of free-throw tries with 3:08 remaining.
Carmen Holcombe of Xavier had a lay-in and free throw, and Holcombe's layup came with 2:06 left. Emoni Harvey cut OCU's lead to 72-70 with 1:15 remaining. Lau rebounded Paige Gauthier's 3-point miss with 39 seconds left.
The Stars called timeout, then ran the clock down to six seconds without scoring. Xavier had a timeout, then set up an inbounds play from the sideline with four seconds to go.
Xavier got the inbound in, but Coulibaly swatted the ball away from Gauthier.
"I have to give it to Xavier," OCU coach Latricia Trammell said. "They really came in, competed and really made us better this evening. We actually needed that. I'm really proud of our girls down the stretch getting stops on the defensive end, getting some good rebounds and doing enough to win."
Yvonte Neal, a junior from Spring Valley, Calif., spearheaded OCU with 24 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Lau, a senior from Mount Wolf, Pa., produced 18 points and 17 rebounds, while Kayla MacKenzie, a senior from Peoria, Ariz., added 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Stars.
Danielle Tucker's running layup in the lane with two seconds left tied the game for Xavier and sent the game into overtime. Tucker also tried a 3-pointer that missed as time expired in regulation.
Lau had an inside bucket from the side of the hoop to put OCU ahead 65-64 with 58 seconds left. Neal sank a free to give the Stars a 66-64 edge with 16 seconds to go.
Xavier's Whitney Gaston-Loyd had a free throw that provided her team with a 57-51 lead with 6:01 left in regulation.
The Stars scored the final 14 points of the first half in the last 6:15 of the period to erase a 27-17 deficit. Neal supplied OCU with six points and an assist during that run.
"It gave us an opportunity to win in the end," Trammell said. "If we didn't do that, it would have been a different story. We showed that passion when we needed to. I think that we lacked it at certain surges of the game. We just gotta regroup mentally and physically and get ready for conference."
OCU begins Sooner Athletic Conference play against Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) at 6 p.m. Thursday in Waxahachie, Texas.

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