Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Goodwell, Okla.—Both the OPSU women's and men's basketball teams closed out their fall home seasons with wins Saturday evening in the Oscar Williams Field House. The Lady Aggies earned their first win of the year 78-67 over Northern New Mexico while the Aggie men notched win number five against Hillsdale Free Will Baptist by a score of 89-82.

In the first game of the night, the OPSU women's team held a first-half lead of 41-34. Kietta Saunders and Johlecia Williams combined for 15 points as the Aggies' leading scorers at the break. After outscoring the Lady Eagles 22-14 in the third period, the Aggie women then went 2-10 from the field in the fourth but added 11 points from free-throws to hold the lead and save the win.

Saunders shared a game-high in scoring of 16 points with Demetria Clichee of Northern New Mexico. Other leading scorers for the Aggies were seniors Brittany Alavinejad and Charron Johnson with 11 and ten points respectively; Alavinejad landed two of the team's three shots from beyond the arc.

One point shy of a double-double, Williams led the game in rebounds bringing down ten boards for the Aggies; she totaled nine points on the game. Saunders finished with seven rebounds and a team-high of three assists. Hannah Whitaker led the game with three steals and added six points and five rebounds.

For the game the Aggies averaged 41.3 percent in shooting, but struggled from three-point range at 15 percent landing 3-20 long-distance shots. OPSU averaged 74.2 percent from the line led by Hannah Southard who went 7-8. NNM shot 35.3 percent from the field with five three-pointers for the night.

The Aggies got away with 15 steals on 19 Lady Eagle turnovers for a total of 23 points on takeaways. OPSU outscored NNM from the bench 33-17 as well as with fast break points (20-4). Forty of the Aggies' points were scored in the paint, thirty of which came in the first half of play.

Of the women's first win head coach Charles Terry said this, "It wasn't a work of art, but we finally got a taste of success. We're still putting things together, but we are getting better. I am proud of our young ladies for staying the course and battling through."

Hillsdale gave the men's team a competitive contest and threw the Aggies off game from beyond the arc, holding OPSU to a three-point average of 4.8 percent for the game. The Aggies were 0-12 from three-point ranges through the first half until Melvin Mitchell broke out with a successful shot at the 3:44 mark; Mitchell's three would be the Aggies' only one of the game.

The visiting Royals pulled a one-point lead with six-minutes left in the first half, but Mitchell's three along with two layups from Dedrick Shannon, Jr. helped the Aggies edge a four-point lead at the break (37-33).

Coming out of the half, the Aggies came out hot scoring on 5-6 shots and taking a ten-point lead in the first four minutes. The Royals closed in at the 13:09 mark leaving the Aggies with a narrow lead of five points and plenty of time on the clock. The Aggies then landed another 5-6 shots and sunk four free-throws to take a 15-point advantage with 8:44 left in the game.

As the clock ticked down, the Royals continued to battle and had bridged the gap to three points with thirty seconds remaining. Forced to foul in an attempt to save the clock, the Royals sent Aggie shooters to the line three times in the closing seconds; the Aggies went 6-8 to clinch the win with free-throws.

In all, OPSU added 30 points from foul shots averaging 78.9 percent from the line; Hillsdale earned only nine points in free-throw shooting 64.3 percent on 18 Aggie player fouls. Both teams were evenly matched at the boards totaling 39 rebounds each on the game. However, the Aggies were able to force 22 turnovers and took 20 steals on the Royals for a total of 24 points off turnovers. Each team also performed well in the paint with OPSU scoring 46 points and Hillsdale with 40.

Hillsdale out-shot the Aggies from the field averaging 49.2 percent to OPSU's 41.4 percent; the Royals landed 42.9 percent of their three-point attempts but were beaten at the line by 21 points.

Antonio Manns, Jr. scored a game-high of 25 points and went 15-15 in free-throws. Three other Aggies scored double-digit numbers with Melvin Mitchell totaling 15, Zoran Arsenovic scoring 14 and Marquavius Williams putting up 12 points against Hillsdale. Arsenovic led the game in rebounds with seven followed by DeShawn Dean with six. Williams, Manns, Shannon and Mitchell each had five rebounds for the game. Shannon also held the game-high in assists with six and Arsenovic led with five steals. Adam Morales led the Royals with 19 points and Hajj Green led the team in rebounds with six.

Happy with the win, head coach Jerry Olson gave his opponent credit saying, "I've got to give it to Hillsdale; they played great, kept hitting shots and stayed in the game." Olson commented on the Aggies' three-point performance, "I can't believe we went 1-21. I also think we're getting lazy with the press. We need to get back to work on a few things but, 5-1, I'll take a win any time."

Both Aggie teams will take to the road after finals and will return to their home court in January. The men will compete in Weatherford on Dec. 12 against Southwestern Oklahoma State and the women will take on Colorado State in Fort Collins on Dec. 13.