Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
Little Rock
Cowgirls Open Season With 67-58 Win Over UALR
November 13, 2009 | Cowgirl Basketball
Nov. 13, 2009
Final Stats
STILLWATER, Okla. - Oklahoma State's women's basketball team opened the 2009-10 campaign with a 67-58 win over UALR in the first round of the preseason WNIT on Friday night in front of 2,336 fans inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.
"That was a great win tonight. That is a quality team that is going to win 25-plus games again like they do every year," Cowgirl head coach Kurt Budke said. "They've got some great players and great coaches. Joe Foley is one of the best coaches in the country at any level."
"For us to come out tonight with this team that we knew was going to make little mistakes along the way and get a win makes us very happy."
The Trojans led for much of the first half and saw their lead swell to 25-14 with less than five minutes remaining. However, the Cowgirls used a 14-3 spurt to go into the locker room knotted at 28 apiece.
Senior Andrea Riley led the charge, scoring eight points during the run to keep the Cowgirls in the contest. The All-America candidate led all players with 27 points and four assists on the night.
"It's just basically how mentally tough we were tonight," Riley said. "I think we really locked in and listened to each other and played the game plan like we were supposed to. When you're going through things in shoot around, it's all about the last four minutes."
UALR jumped back out in front to start the second half and once again led for much of the second 20 minutes. The Trojans took their largest lead of the half at 50-43 with just under seven minutes remaining before the Cowgirls stormed back again.
OSU reeled off seven-straight points capped by a long 3-pointer from junior Lakyn Garrison to draw even at 50-50.
With the score tied at 52, junior Precious Robinson got an offensive rebound and putback to give OSU the lead for good with three minutes remaining.
After a pair of Riley free throws, Tegan Cunningham buried a 3-pointer from the corner to push the margin to 59-53. The senior added four consecutive free throws in the final minute to put the game away.
Cunningham finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, while freshman Lindsey Keller grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Chastity Reed paced UALR with 22 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
The Cowgirls will be back in action on Sunday at 2 p.m. when they host Georgia Tech in WNIT second round action.
