Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score Goodwell, Okla.—Saturday the OPSU women's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking three-point loss to the University of Texas-Permian Basin Lady Falcons. Coming down to the last second, the Aggies fell 59-62 in the Heartland conference matchup. The Aggies were coming off of a51-70 loss to St. Edward's on Thursday.

The Oscar Williams Field House went into a frenzy in the final minute of the game, as the Aggies tied things up at 59-59; but a personal foul put the ball back in UTPB hands and one free-throw and a successful jump shot later the game was over.

Down 23-37 at the half, the Aggies struggled to land shots and held a 29.4 percent average from the field in the first two periods. The Lady Falcons were shooting at 41.9 percent and had added 27 points to the board off nine three-pointers in the first half alone. UTPB's Niniva Taito led the game in scoring at the half with 17 points, hitting five of nine from three-point land. Tatyana Bell accounted for the bulk of OPSU's points with a first-half total of 14.

Bell and Denise Levine paired two shots in the paint to open the third period of play, and a last second layup by Shaletha Mayberry edged the Aggies to within eight points of the Lady Falcons with a score of 42-50. The Aggies held UTPB shooter to one of seven three-pointers and outscored the Falcons 19-13 in the third quarter.

Coming on strong defensively in the fourth, the Aggies came away with six steals on six UTPB turnovers, blocked three shots and allowed just one three-point attempt that fell short of its target. At the 8:23 mark Brittany Alavinejad landed a layup to cut the lead to two points (48-50). The Aggies then went 0-4 and committed two fouls and a technical over the next three minutes, giving the Lady Falcons an opportunity to jump back to a double-digit lead of ten points with 5:34 on the clock. Hannah Whitaker came away with a huge steal leading to a two-point shot by Bell and, later Bell would tack on three more points for the Aggies when a big block and defensive rebound by Charron Johnson drew a foul sending Bell to the line. With 2:08 left in the game the Aggies were down by one point (59-58). Fans in the fieldhouse raised the noise level in support of their team, but were soon silenced as UTPB walked away with the win.

The Aggies outscored the Lady Falcons 36-25 in the second half, and led 40-20 on points in the paint; OPSU also added 18 points off turnovers and only allowed seven to UTPB. For the game the Aggies averaged 32.8 percent shooting, and went 0-5 from three-point range. The Falcons went 38.3 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc. Bell led the game in scoring with 26 points, besting the league's second-ranked shooter in three-point percentage, UTPB's Niniva Taito; Taito finished with 20 points, fifteen from three-point shots. Hannah Southard and Charron Johnson led for the Aggie bench combining for 13 points, and Denise Levine was the team's second-leading scorer with eight points.

UTPB totaled 42 rebounds led by Khadijah Vigil who earned the games only double-double with 15 rebounds and 11 points. Hannah Whitaker led at the boards for OPSU with eight rebounds followed by Southard with seven and, Johnson and Bell with six rebounds each. Bell also led the game in steals along with teammate Kietta Saunders, both with three takeaways. Saunders held the team high in assists with five, just behind Taito who contributed a game-high of seven assists for UTPB.

In Thursday's matchup with St. Edward's Bell, once again, totaled the team high for scoring with 12 points scoring seven in the opening two periods. St. Edward's led 37-23 at halftime taking 15 more shot attempts than OPSU and connecting on 42.9 percent. Turnovers also hurt the Aggies in the first half as they handed over 17 points off 14 first half turnovers.

The Aggies turned the tables in the second half and outscored the Hilltoppers 16-10 on points off turnovers, but more than doubled their number of player fouls from four in the first half to a combined ten in the third and fourth periods. In the fourth period SEU added 11 boards to their total of 41 for the game; OPSU only got two rebounds in the final period, totaling 23 for the game. While the Aggies won the third period 19-15, the Toppers came back big winning the fourth 18-9 to secure the win.

All eight Aggies with playing time put up points in Thursday night's matchup. Brittany Alavinejad added nine, Hannah Southard had eight and Hannah Whitaker finished with seven points. Whitaker also led the team in rebounds with seven and Southard held the game-high in steals with four. Khiana Clark was the game leader in scoring totaling 20 points for St. Edward's; she earned the double-double by gaining a game-high of ten rebounds. Shakera Barnes held the game-high in assists with six.

Dropping to 1-16 on the season and 0-8 in conference play, the Aggies still have nine games ahead of them and hope to start hitting on all cylinders as they continue in the conference stretch. Coach Charles Terry commented, "The team is still working hard, but we're not quite there yet. Our kids really played hard, but just didn't execute down the stretch."

The Aggie women will take the court again this week, hosting an undefeated Lubbock Christian team. The Lady Chaps are currently 17-0 for the season and 9-0 in the Heartland Conference. Tipoff is 5:30 p.m. in the Oscar Williams Field House.