Oklahoma State University Athletics
Women's Hoops Falls To Australian Institute Of Sport
May 12, 2000 | Cowgirl Basketball
May 12, 2000
CANBERRA, Australia -- Oklahoma State's women's basketball team fell to the Australian Institute of Sport, 73-69, here in the national capital of Australia Friday night. The loss was the Cowgirls' first of their Australian tour. Center Jessica Bates scored 23 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in the loss.
Cowgirl senior Jennifer Crow added 19 points off the bench, while Shelby Hutchens scored nine and Toya Releford added eight. AIS's Shelley Hammonds scored 18 points, leading the team.
OSU trailed by as many as 14 in the first half, and was behind, 48-39, at intermission. The Institute again led by as many as 13 points with 10:54 remaining in the game. The Cowgirls trailed by 10 at 70-60 with 6:03 in the game when OSU went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to one with 2:38 remaining. Australian-native Jessica Spinner hit a key three pointer in that span, her first points of the game, and Bates added four during the run.
Oklahoma State shot 51.6 (16-of-31) percent from the floor in the first half, but just 8-of-30 (26.7 percent) in the second. The Cowgirls were outrebounded, 45-32, in the game, including a 24-10 deficit on the boards in the first half.
Bates' shot 9-of-14 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the line. She also had one block and no turnovers in 33 minutes of play, despite playing the last 7-1/2 minutes with four fouls. As a team, the Cowgirls had just nine turnovers, including just two in the second half.
The Australian Institute of Sport is a program designed to bring the best athletes in Australia together at a single institution. Most of the players are between the ages of 16 and 18. Because no other high schools are capable of competing with the team, the Institute plays in Division I of the WNBL, the women's pro basketball league. The Institute, the only amateur team in the league, won the 1999 championship.
Oklahoma State will play the Sutherland Basketball Club on Monday, May 15, at 5:30 p.m. in Sydney, Australia, the home of the 2000 Summer Olympics.
