Alexis Gaulden dribbles around a defender. photo by James Taylor

Women’s basketball goes down fighting

Basketball journalist Brayden McCoy covers Tulsa’s 76-73 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State University last Wednesday.

Wednesday night saw the women’s basketball team in action for the first time this year in an exhibition match against Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Even with Kendrian Elliott racking up a double-double with 27 points and 12 rebounds, TU still fell to the 2019 NCAA Division II national runners-up with a 76-73 final score.

The resulting score was somewhat unpredictable, seeing as the Golden Hurricane held the lead for most of the game, right up until there was 0:39 left. The shot that changed the tide was a three pointer sunk by SWOSU’s Bethany Franks. TU held the lead by up to 13 points but eventually went down in the last quarter.

The game began with the Golden Hurricane surging into a 9-4 lead in the first four minutes of the game, but then the Bulldogs took the next five points and tied the score up. The back and forth continued until the end of the first period which saw TU ahead 19-16.

The second quarter started off with a jumpshot by Maddie Bittle that put TU ahead 21-16. The Golden Hurricane kept their lead until the last 30 seconds left in the first half when the Bulldogs managed to tie the score for the third time at 38-38. With about five seconds remaining in the first half, the Golden Hurricane’s Elin Hrafnkelsdottir scoring a three to bring the game to 41-38 at halftime. At the intermission, Elliot was the leading scorer among all players, with 16 points and seven rebounds.

The second half continued in a similar manner, with both teams battling hard until the last seconds. After Bethany Franks sank a three-pointer to give SWOSU the lead, her teammate Lauren Ramey added on two free throws to cement their lead with only 0:11 left in the game. TU managed to score two free-throws in the final seconds but this last ditch effort wasn’t enough to take the lead back.

During the game, SWOSU made 11 out of 36 three-pointers and scored 26 points off of TU’s turnovers. Meanwhile, TU made six out of 17 three-pointers and 11 points off of opponent turnovers.

Post Author: Brayden McCoy