Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Austin, Texas—The Aggies went up against the top two teams in the Heartland Conference Thursday evening as they took on the St. Edward's University Hilltoppers in Austin; SEU's men are currently tied for first in the conference while the women's team is ranked second.

The Toppers improved their records with two wins over the Aggies in Thursday's match-ups. The OPSU women fought hard but fell 79-62 and the Aggie men were defeated 94-46 with a sluggish second-half performance.

The Aggie women got off to a slow start being outscored 44-17 in the first half; St. Ed's held the Aggies to a 17 percent shooting percentage and brought down 33 rebounds to the OPSU's nine before the break. The ladies came back strong in the second half outshooting the Toppers 51 percent to St. Ed's 45 percent. The Aggies also went to work at the boards bringing down 16 rebounds in the second half, but could not overcome the first half deficit.

Sade Tutson scored a game-high 27 points for the Aggies, going a perfect 11-11 from the line. Kiera Waters played a physical game with 14 points, eight rebounds, one block and five steals. St. Ed's had two players earn double-doubles: Khiani Clark with 11 points and a game-high 19 rebounds, and Jaimie Kadlecek with ten points and 11 rebounds. Aimee Durbidge was the leading scorer for the Toppers with 24 points and Mileka Loydrake offered up a game-high six assists.

Coach Chalres Terry was proud of his teams' second-half effort but said, "Our shooting let us down in the first half. We're still working hard and I'm very proud of their effort."

The men's team played a strong first half coming within one point of the lead on three separate occasions, but the Toppers' defense started pulling down rebounds off missed Aggie shots and St. Ed's took a ten-point lead at the break. The Aggies had a tough time finding the basket in the second half scoring only 18 points, while St. Ed's put up 56 to clinch their seventh conference win and remain at the top of the Heartland ranks.

SEU's Harley Nussman earned the game-high with 17 points joined by teammate Trey Lindsey who led the game in rebounds with 12. The Aggies' leading scorer was Antonio Manns, Jr. with 12 points and Marquavius Williams led the team with four rebounds.

OPSU men's coach Jerry Olson stated, "We played well in the first half; St. Edward's played great. They shot it well and we did not. We need to give them a lot of credit; they are a very good team."

The Aggies will face another very good team in Odessa Saturday as they hit the court against the University of Texas-Permian Basin. PB's men are currently ranked third in the conference with an 11-6 overall record and the women's team sits fifth in the Heartland with an overall record of 10-6. Aggie fans can keep up with the action via live video and stats links located on the schedule pages on the OPSU Aggie Athletics website.