OKLAHOMA CITY — Good thing it was only an exhibition game.
Turnover-prone Central Oklahoma never found its offensive rhythm and gave up easy baskets throughout in dropping an ugly 98-74 decision to Oklahoma City Tuesday night at Abe Lemons Arena in its lone exhibition contest of the preseason.
The Bronchos, ranked 12th in NCAA Division II, committed 31 turnovers while shooting just 59.5 percent (22-of-37) from the free throw line. It was a regular season contest for the NAIA No. 8-rated Stars, who made 29 layups in shooting 57.4 percent (39-of-68) from the field in improving to 2-0.
“We didn’t do very much right tonight,” UCO coach Guy Hardaker said. “We stood around on offense, didn’t take care of the ball and obviously didn’t play any defense. OCU has a great team and it was a good learning experience for us, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Bronchos, who open the season Sunday afternoon at Pittsburg State, got 15 points from Ashley Beckley, 11 from Jordan Stark and 10 from Alyssa Fuxa in the loss. All-American Holly Harden made 11-of-14 shots and scored 23 points to lead OCU.
UCO got off to a horrible start, missing seven of its first eight shots and committing four turnovers in falling behind 12-3 five minutes into the contest, and it was a 22-12 deficit midway through the opening half.
The Bronchos clawed back in it with a 7-0 spurt capped by a Brianne Grisham 3-pointer that cut it 22-19 and Beckley had back-to-back layups a few minutes later to get UCO within 33-31 with 3:45 remaining.
But the Bronchos then ended the half like they started it, missing their last three shots from the field while hitting just 3-of-5 free throws and throwing the ball away twice as OCU went on a 10-3 run to take a 43-34 lead into intermission.
The Stars quickly started to pull away in the second half and UCO had no answer as the misses and turnovers continued to mount.
