After leading for much of the first half, the Ouachita Baptist Lady Tigers fell into a shooting slump in the final 20 minutes and were defeated by the East Central Lady Tigers 59-48 on Saturday.
“We’ve struggled shooting the ball this year and they went to a zone and we just couldn’t make shots,” said head coach Gary Crowder. “We got some open looks but we just couldn’t get them to fall.”
The Lady Tigers shot 25.6 percent from the field for the game. They scored 24 points during both halves but East Central shot better in the second half to take the victory. There was a joint effort from the Lady Tigers to score their points as 10 of the 11 players on the roster scored, led by Nashia James, Elise Holman, Joy Okeke and Ashley Johnson. Despite a low shooting percentage, Ouachita stayed in the game with a tough press defense.
East Central struggled to get the ball across midcourt during the first half to force a turnover. Ouachita forced 16 more turnovers. East Central was able to rebound more consistently on defense, coming down with 27 in comparison to Ouachita’s 21.
“We will prepare a game plan and definitely be putting up a lot of shots to try to get better,” said Crowder.
The Lady Tigers will play at Southern Nazarene on February 8 with tipoff set for 2:00 p.m.
By: Delaney Thomas
