Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Goodwell, Okla.—The men and women of Oklahoma Panhandle State University basketball each met with tough competition Tuesday evening resulting in losses for both teams.

The women traveled to Wichita Falls, Texas to play top-ranked LSC team Midwestern State and put up a great fight in the 92-76 loss. The men hosted the RMAC's undefeated University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and hung tough for a full forty minutes; despite great effort, UCCS took home a 93-82 victory over the Aggies.

Head coach of the Lady Aggies, Charles Terry, was really pleased with his team's effort saying, "Performing on the road is the biggest thing I've looked for and we played our hardest yet. I'm very proud of our young ladies."

The Aggie women competed for every point in Tuesday's match-up against Midwestern and went into halftime down by only three points.  Freshman Jacinda Balderrama turned up the heat with a three-pointer to tie the game at the 10-minute mark of the first half; and the Aggies would keep a close distance evening the score a second time with another shot good for three, this time from the hands of Tatyana Bell. Sade Tutson would pull the Aggies ahead by one-point with a successful free-throw but the Mustangs maintained their pursuit through the remaining minutes of the half and left the court with a 46-43 lead.

Tutson would take two from the line in the opening minutes of the second half which tied things up at 48-48. The Aggies tied the game twice more in the following six minutes and then took a one-point lead after a MSU foul sent Kiera Waters to the line. Midwestern kept their composure and continued making baskets The Aggies were able to stay within ten points through the five-minute mark but seven fouls gave the Mustangs 10 points in the closing minutes and MSU earned their fifth win of the season by a margin of 14.

OPSU had two players claiming game-high scores: Kiera Waters went 10-17 from the field, 3-6 from beyond the arc and 3-4 from the line for a season-high total of 26 points, and Sade Tutson was close behind finishing with 24 points (16 from the field and eight from the line). Waters also led her team in assists with seven which tied the game-high with MSU's Shatoia Gober. Dianna Jones led the Mustangs in scoring with 19 points. Hannah Tatum led the Aggies in rebounds with six while Shambreka Jones brought down a game-high 15 boards for Midwestern.

Coach Terry concluded, "I really liked the way our team has responded and played the last couple of games. Although we didn't win, we competed and gave ourselves a chance." The Lady Aggies are now 1-4 on the season and get back to home-court action this weekend with a game on Sunday, Nov. 30 against the University of Nebraska-Kearney; tip-off is set for 1:30 p.m.

Like Coach Terry, OPSU men's coach Jerry Olson was really pleased with his team's effort against a highly-ranked opponent. The Aggie men were in a dog-fight from start to finish against UCCS who boasts the number-four ranked scorer in the RMAC with junior guard Derrick White. White scored a career-high 25 points against the Aggies in Tuesday's performance and contributed a game-high 11 assists.

It was White who started things off scoring the first basket of the game after the Mountain Lions won the opening tip-off. UCCS went on to score 8-15 in the following six minutes including three dunks giving them a 13-point advantage with 13:20 left on the clock (21-8). The Aggies went to work and cut the Mountain Lion lead to just one point by halftime with the help of Marquavius Williams who added 11 points to the board as well as Austin Beene and Jared Straight who each scored eight to close the half. The score after twenty minutes was 50-49.

The Aggies returned with purpose and tied the game in the opening three minutes of the second half; a jumper good from Williams evened the score at 55 apiece. UCCS slowly climbed back and found a 12-point lead at the 14-minute mark; the Aggies pushed to within five points with 5:38 left to play but the Mountain Lions held their opponent to just four points and went on to score ten themselves to remain undefeated on the season.

Coach Olson felt that his team really stepped up and gave them a chance against a very good opponent. "Our guys battled hard." Not taking away from his team's effort Olson added, "We basically got 'Derrick White-ed'; he is a tremendous player. The same thing hurt us again on defense and we gave up five offensive boards that they scored on. We just couldn't get rebounds down the stretch."

Although White finished with 25 points, it was OPSU's Antonio Manns, Jr. who earned the game-high with 26 points; this is Manns' fifth consecutive game to lead all in scoring. Marquavius Williams totaled 18 points for the Aggies and led his team in assists with six. Alaska-native Jared Straight also had a good game totaling 14 points. DeShawn Dean grabbed ten rebounds while UCCS's Alex Welsh led the game with 11. Olson was pleased with Dean's ability to get up and get rebounds and felt that Williams played great the entire 36 minutes he was on the court.

The Aggies move to 1-4 overall and will continue their home stretch this Saturday, Nov. 29 with a game against Southwestern Oklahoma State University at 3 p.m. Aggie fans are reminded to bring a non-perishable food item to each home game through Dec. 18 in support of the Aggies CAN food drive.