January 14, 2000 Tigers, Lady Tigers downed by East Central By Mac Sisson

The road wasn't kind to either the Tigers or the Lady Tigers of Ouachita Baptist University as the two teams dropped their first two Lone Star Conference North Division games of the year on Thursday night at the Kerr Activities Center at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.

Lady Tigers 70, ECU Lady Tigers 73

The reality of conference play on the road loomed large at the end of the OBU Lady Tigers game on Thursday night in Ada, as the East Central Lady Tigers didn't let press clippings impress them as they handed the nation's 21st ranked OBU Lady Tigers a 73-70 setback.

Ouachita had a terrible night in shooting the ball. Coach Garry Crowder's made only 32 percent (24 of 74) of their field goal attempts.

Leading scorer Jamie Scheppmann was held to only 15 points, seven came from the line. Starting forward Corrie Gilliland ended the night with zero points, while starting post Jeannie Kennedy put only seven on the scoreboard. One bright spot was the play by starting forward Jennifer Edwards who scored 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, as did Scheppmann.

The ECU Lady Tigers had outstanding performances by guards Nellie Onjiko and Ashley Prince. Onjiko scored 18 points and grabbed a career high 14 rebounds. Prince poured in 20 points and added four rebounds.

Ouachita lost the game in the second half with its poor shooting. Crowder's team hit only 30 percent of its efforts (eight of 27) from the field. ECU went 10 of 25 from the field in the second stanza for 40 percent. Ouachita held a 39-37 advantage at half-time.

For the night, ECU was 22 of 56 from the field for 39 percent, while OBU was 24 of 74 for 32 percent. ECU tried 19 three-pointers for the evening and made seven for 37 percent.

OBU, one of the Lone Star Conferences's best three point shooting clubs, responded by hitting only three of 14 attempts it tried from the distance for 21 percent. In free throw shooting ECU was 22 of 27 for the game for 81 percent, while OBU hit 19 of its 25 attempts for 76 percent.

The OBU Lady Tigers won the rebounding statistics, holding a 49-43 advantage over the ECU Lady Tigers.

The loss left Ouachita with a 10-2 overall record and 0-1 in the LSC. East Central now claims a 7-5 overall record and 1-0 in the conference.

Ouachita ranked 21st in the latest USA Today/Women's Basketball Coaches Poll and second in the South Central region of the NCAA Division II, will need to pick up the pieces and regroup for another LSC confrontation on Saturday night with a a very tough Southeastern Oklahoma State University Lady Savages team at 6 p.m. at Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium in Durant, Oklahoma. The game can be heard over KDEL-FM (10.9) in Arkadelphia.