Pineville, La.-The Lady Eagles dug themselves into too big of a hole in the first half and never recovered as Concordia University Texas took a 65-46 victory in the American Southwest Conference Women?s Basketball Tournament Friday afternoon in Pineville, Louisiana.
The first round loss ends Ozarks season with a 13-13 overall record.
“We knew they were going to play a zone and spread it out,” said Head Coach Carl Ramsey. “We felt like we had to get our inside game going to take some pressure off of the perimeter. But we got behind early and had to fight the rest of the way. It just wasn’t one of our better efforts.”
Concordia (21-4) opened the game with a 16-3 run, but Ozarks eventually climbed within 18-14 after an April Young three-pointer. Ozarks wouldn’t score again until the 4:07 mark, which came on an Alison Villines bucket, to make the score 24-16. Things continued to go Concordia’s way as the Tornados outscored Ozarks 14-6 the rest of the half. Concordia forced 17 turnovers in the first half and Ozarks didn’t help itself by hitting just 8-of-24 from the field. Concordia’s Shamika Singleton was tough to stop as she scored 16 first half points.
Concordia took its momentum into the second half and held a double-digit lead the entire way. Concordia’s lead swelled to 48-28 with 12:31 remaining the game.
It was the final game for the Lady Eagles five decorated seniors.
“These five seniors had great careers,” said Ramsey. “I told them afterwards not to let this one game define the season. I am proud of them and what they’ve accomplished in their careers. I couldn’t ask for five better people. They’ve made a pretty good coach out of me the last two years.”
Sabrina Goddard led Ozarks with 15 points, while Jordyn Ferrell added 10 points.
Topics: Athletics