By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Southwest Covenant went into the first game of the new decade looking to get off to a fast start and win their first game of the season.
Sydney Duncan and Oklahoma Christian Academy kept the Lady Patriots from reaching that mark.
Duncan poured in 24 points and led the Lady Eagles to a 67-48 win Tuesday night at SWCS.
The Lady Patriots, 0-4, led after one quarter, but saw the Lady Eagles take control in the second via the three-ball. SWCS could not catch up after that.
“You never know how a team is going to play coming back after a layoff like we had,” Lady Patriot coach Terry Fellenstein said. “We came out and played a good game, OCA is a good team and they just hit more shots than we did. When you play a team that shoots a lot of three-point shots, you have to be able to make up for it and we didn’t do it.
“The thing that really hurt us was we didn’t shoot free throws very well at all and we let them have too many offensive rebounds,” he added. “You can’t shoot under 50 percent from the line and have a chance to win. We have to do a better job of hitting our free throws and not giving up second and third shots.”
The Lady Patriots did hit 18 shots from the floor (only one of them from behind the three-point line) and were ionly nine of 25 from the free throw line. Oklahoma Christian hit 29 shots from the field (six of them treys) and shot only five free throws but hit three.
Southwest Covenant attacked the inside early and also took advantage of the free throw line to take an early lead. Kylie Moseley hit a shot in the lane and added two free throws to open a early 4-1 lead. OCA tied the game on a trey from Amanni Peterson.
A Maci Noland field goal and a pair of free throws pushed the lead to 8-4. After OCA tied the game again, Moseley hit three more field goals and added two free throws to give the Lady Patriots a 15-14 lead. Moseley had 10 of the SWCS points and Noland five in the frame.
OCA came out shooting treys using three-balls from Duncan and Caton Adair to take a 20-17 lead. After Brianna Wietelman hit a field goal, Maci Sons connected on a trey to open a 25-20 lead. OCA closed the quarter on an 11-6 run to open a 36-26 lead at the half. Emma Riggs and Moseley had four points each for the Lady Patriots.
SWCS used a field goal from Riggs and a Moseley free throw to make it a 38-29 game. Field goals from Wietelman and Duncan keyed an 8-2 run and a 46-31 lead. The Lady Patriots went back to the inside and three field goals from Moseley cut the lead to 48-38.
Moseley hit her fourth field goal of the quarter to make it a 50-40 game. Adair’s trey in the closing seconds opened a 53-40 lead.
A pair of Wietelman field goals pushed the lead to 57-42. Duncan hit a pair of free throws and two field goals that keyed an 8-2 run and a 65-44 lead. The Lady Patriots cut the lead to 65-48 before Duncan hit the final points of the game.
Moseley did lead all scorers with 26, hitting 11 field goals and four of six from the line. Riggs added 12 points and Noland and Lexi Inge added five each. Duncan led OCA with 24, Wietelman added 18 and Adair and Sons had eight each.
The Lady Patriots play today in the Hammon Tournament and will host Astec Charter at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
