SHAWNEE, Okla. – No. 1-ranked Oklahoma City University took down Cumberlands (Ky.) 71-56 in the Oklahoma Baptist Thanksgiving Classic Saturday night in the Noble Complex.
OCU improved to 2-1 in women's basketball, Cumberlands went to 5-3.
Ouleymatou Coulibaly and Rateska Brown contributed the majority of the scoring for the Stars. Coulibaly, a senior from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, scored an OCU high 28 points and pulled down eight rebounds. She scored on 10 of 16 field-goals and added a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line.
Brown, a senior from Alvin, S.C., added 24 points on 9-of-16 from the floor and added six rebounds, two assists and two steals for OCU.
The Stars led 43-25 at the half. The suffocating OCU offense held Cumberlands to just 31.8 percent shooting, while the Stars shot 52 percent from the floor, including 16-of-18 from the free throw line. Coulibaly and Brown both had 16 points heading into the locker room.
LaTeeah DeLoach made a bucket and cut the Stars lead to eight, under four minutes into the second half.
OCU then went on a 10-1 run to extend the lead to 25 with 8:40 to go in the game.
The Stars never trailed in the game and built a 25 point lead with 8:40 to go in the game, the largest of the game. The Cumberlands was held to 39.1 percent field-goal shooting.
Oklahoma City takes on MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) 1 p.m. Saturday at Oklahoma Baptist.