Senior Sharice Papaleo goes up for a basket against St. Mary's.—Kelsey Moser photo
Box Score Goodwell, Okla.—For the second straight game an Aggie has reached double-double status yet fallen short of the win. Thursday evening the OPSU women's basketball team dropped a Heartland game to St. Mary's University with a 77-52 loss.
Sharice Papaleo bagged her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 boards.
Sarah Johnson led the team in scoring and assists with 15 points and four assists; Johnson also grabbed five rebounds.
Hannah Tatum followed up her double-double game from last week with another good performance, contributing 12 points and six rebounds.
The Aggies made the Lady Rattlers work for their points from the start, holding the opponent scoreless for the first three minutes of play and staying within six points of the lead through the 10 minute mark of the first half (14-8). Both teams continued to play hard but the momentum swung in St. Mary's favor with a 13-point lead going into halftime (33-20).
Meagan Bell scored the first Aggie three of the game in the opening minutes of the second half, but the Aggies were still down by double digits and were unable to narrow the gap below 11 points. The Lady Rattlers went on to increase their lead ending the game at 77-52 and improving their conference record to 2-0. The Aggies remain winless with an overall record of 0-9. Turnovers plagued both teams throughout the game; St. Mary's tallied 23 and OPSU racked up a season-high 30.
OPSU Assistant Coach
Matt Creamer said, "We continue to fight and play hard. You might not always play well, but you can always play hard!" Coach Creamer is confident that if the team continues to work and play hard, "good things will happen."
The Aggie women will play their final home game of 2013 on Saturday, Dec. 7 against Heartland team Texas A&M-International; tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
Join the Aggies in their fight against hunger by bringing a canned or nonperishable food item to the game for the Aggies "Can" Make A Difference food drive benefitting the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry of Guymon.
