Clarksville, Ark.-The Lady Eagles put on perhaps their best performance of the season and April Young scored a career-high 26 points to lead Ozarks to a 77-65 win over UT-Tyler Saturday in American Southwest Conference play.
Young, who leads the ASC in three-point makes per game (2.6) and is the league’s fourth leading scorer, surpassed her previous career-high of 24 points thanks to a 4-of-9 performance behind the arc. Ozarks (5-12, 3-9 ASC) also benefitted from the return of the Sabrina Goddard, who is the top scorer in the conference, but it was Ozarks’ balanced scoring that put them ahead 36-22 at the half. Goddard scored nine first half points and snagged six rebounds and all eight players that saw action scored for the Lady Eagles. UT-Tyler struggled from the field in the first half, hitting only 8-of-27 (29%) of their shots. The Lady Eagles took a lead they wouldn’t relinquish at the 13:05 mark of the first half and then increased their advantage to 21-11 five minutes later.
Young ignited Ozarks in the second half with 19 points, and her three one minute into the second half gave Ozarks a 42-22 advantage. UT-Tyler trimmed it to 56-46 with less than ten minutes to play, but Young answered with a jumper to halt a Patriot comeback.
“I was proud of the kids and I thought we played extremely hard,” said head coach Carl Ramsey. “I liked our balance that we showed offensively. We spread the ball around nicely. We’ve had so many games where we’ve been close this season, but I thought the difference was our confidence today. I think that is a result of Sabrina and Lacey (Phillips) being back in the lineup. The effort has been there all year long.”
Goddard finished with 16 points. Chelsea Glasscock had eight assists and four steals.
Ozarks will host Mississippi College January 28.
Topics: Athletics