Women Falter at Finish

January 5, 2008

SAN ANGELO, Texas – Southwestern Oklahoma State University nearly landed its biggest win of the season only to see Angelo State wiggle out of its grasp in the final seconds and escape with a 51-45 victory.

The loss for the SWOSU women was their second straight and left their overall season record at 7-5. Angelo State improved to 11-2 with the come-from-behind win.

The Bulldogs had the Rambelles on the ropes and looked to be in good shape when Jenna Sprague scored to give SWOSU a 51-45 lead with 2:17 to play. From that point, just about everything went wrong. A combination of turnovers, missed shots and costly miscues led to the Bulldogs undoing. ASU scored the game’s final 10 points and took the lead for good with 17 seconds to play when Nichelle Sparks stole the ball and scored to put the Rambelles ahead 47-45.

SWOSU had an opportunity to tie in the closing seconds but Kadee Carter’s layup bounced off the rim and ASU rebounded. The Rambelles made four free throws in the final seven seconds to provide the misleading six-point margin.

SWOSU spread the points around as eight different players contributed in the scoring column. Tobey Beer was top point scorer with nine points, all of which came on three-point shots.

Lindsey Leatherman had 20 points to lead ASU, including a perfect nine-for-nine at the charity stripe.

SWOSU made a higher percentage of shots than ASU, connecting on 41% (18-of-44) compared to ASU’s 33% (16-of-48). The Bulldogs were hurt in the turnover column where they gave the ball up 25 times on offense compared to just 18 by ASU.