The Oakland Post

OU women's hoops felled by Flyers, Bradley awaits men

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PHOTO: BOB KNOSKA/The Oakland Post

The Oakland University womens basketball team’s 10-game home winning streak was snapped Thursday night in the most important game of the season, as the Dayton Flyers downed the Grizzlies 70-55 in their first-round WNIT matchup.

It was a disappointing ending to the most successful season in  OU women’s basketball history, and a teary and apologetic Beckie Francis was overcome with emotion as she walked into the last press conference of the season.

“Thanks for your support all year, and sorry we couldn’t give a better performance tonight,” said Francis.

OU fought through a tough Flyer defense in the first half to take their first lead with six seconds left on a Jessica Pike lay-up, and enter halftime up 30-29.

Unfortunately, OU’s only lead would last 30 seconds, as Dayton’s defense held Pike to two second-half points, and spent the first six minutes of the second half on a 15-3 run, eventually stretching their lead to 18 with four minutes left.  

Pike said that her team simply couldn’t match the Flyers’ intensity, as 15 second- half turnovers spelled the end for any comeback.  “[Committing so many turnovers], we weren’t getting the opportunities to score, so we’re not going to score,” said Pike.

But, even when they had the opportunities they weren’t capitalizing, as they only hit eight of 23 shots in the final half, as they finished the game shooting 37.9 percent from the field, and only hit four of fourteen three-point shots for the game.

Pike said the poor shooting came as a result of the Flyers’ defensive pressure, where the turnovers caused them to get overly excited for the shots that they were given.

“We were just frustrated that we didn’t match their intensity. They came out, they punched us real early and we were just knocked on our heels for the rest of the half,” Pike said. “Its just frustrating, we weren’t talking as much, our defense was there, so our offense wasn’t flowing.”

Melissa Jeltema lead the team with 17 points and eight rebounds in a valiant effort to keep her team from ending the season in a blowout. But, 17 points from Dayton’s bench was too much, as OU’s sparkplug, point guard April Kidd was held to four total points and three assists, as fouls plagued her all night.

“What happened to April was that we really rely on her defense, and she relies on her defense, so when she gets in foul trouble it takes her out of her game,” Francis said.

Francis credited the Flyers overall size for intimidating the Grizzlies pursuit to the basket, as she acknowledged the Atlantic 10conference’s athletic superiority over  the Summit League.  

The loss comes on the heels of an announcement that the OU men’s basketball team will square off at Bradley Monday, March 23 at 8 p.m. as they continue their pursuit of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament crown.