A sluggish start carried over to the second half, as the Ouachita Baptist Women’s Basketball team dropped their season opener to Tougaloo College, 79-70, in a non-conference game held at Duke Wells Gym at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia on Sunday.
Ouachita (0-1) never led in the second half, but cut the deficit to 58-57 with 9:21 left, but Tougaloo (1-0) made the shots down the stretch and Ouachita couldn’t recover.
The Lady Tigers jumped to a 20-12 lead with 10:52 left in the first half after a three-pointer from Adams. After that, however, Tougaloo went on a 14-4 run and would never look back in the first half, going on a 7-0 run in the final 1:43.
Tougaloo (1-0) led 43-35 at half, as the Lady Tigers shot 43.8 percent from the court, but just 30 percent from the three-point line (4-for-13).
In the second half, Ouachita played Tougaloo close until the 6:48 mark, where the Lady Tigers trailed by just 63-61. It was the foul situation for Ouachita in the final six minutes of play that made the difference in the end. After shooting just 5-for-12 from the free-throw line, Tougaloo went 16-for-28 on the free-throw line in the second half, propelling the team to the victory.
Ouachita Baptist recorded a higher field goal percentage (40.6%) compared to Tougaloo (37.9%), but the rebound advantage of 52-37 for Tougaloo made a huge difference.
Pre-season All-GSC sophomore A’Laeshia Adams led Ouachita with 18 points, while junior Gabby Coleman added 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Senior Angela Colliver and sophomore Beulah Osueke each added 10 points, while junior Tamara Robinson led the squad with nine rebounds.
Erica Grayson led Tougaloo with 20 points, while Victoria Jones added a double double of 18 points and 17 rebounds.
Ouachita returns to action on Monday, Nov. 16 against Philander Smith at 6 p.m. at Bill Vining Arena in Arkadelphia.
