Cummins' big night helps ECU women knock of SOSU

Feb. 15—DURANT — East Central senior Izzy Cummins scored a career-high 28 points to help the Tigers drill host Southeastern 60-47 Monday night inside the Bloomer Sullivan Arena.

ECU has now won three straight games and is charging toward a playoff berth. The Tigers are now 10-12 overall and 7-11 in Great American Conference play. The win over the Savage Storm puts East Central in the thick of the race for a berth in the GAC postseason tournament.

Southeastern dropped to 7-16 and 5-13.

"We did a great job sticking to the game plan," ECU interim head coach Heather Hurt said. "We held their best players to a combined 10 points. It was a great defensive effort from our entire team. Izzy Cummins helped us offensively and scored the basketball. I'm really proud of our effort and our ability to improve our rebounding."

The Tigers dominated the battle of the boards 43-29.

ECU got off to a quick 5-0 lead thanks to Kate Ogle's 3-pointer and Izzy Cummins' layup. Southeastern would tie the score 7-7, but the Tigers held the lead at 12-10 at the end of the period.

Southeastern rattled off six straight points to open the second quarter and take their first lead of the game, 16-13. ECU answered back with three straight field goals from Cummins and a layup from Mackenzie Crusoe to regain the lead at 21-16 at the 3:34 mark.

At the half, the Tigers remained on top 24-19.

The third quarter saw both teams have their best shooting performance as ECU shot 53.3 percent from the field and Southeastern shot 46.2 percent to score 17 points each. A 5-0 run by the Savage Storm forced the game's second tie of the night at 24-all, but the Tigers responded five a 5-0 run of their own to hold the lead for the remainder of the game.

ECU led by as much as 16 points in the fourth quarter after a Cummins' 3-pointer made it 54-38 with 4:15 to play. Southeastern never got closer than nine the rest of the way.

Cummins shot a hot 12-of-18 from the field, including three 3-point baskets. Her previous career-high was 27 points against the same SOSU squad back on Jan. 23.

Following Cummins was Ogle, who had her first double-double of the season. She scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Crusoe was just shy of two points from earning her first double-double of the season. She had eight points to go along with a team-high 12 rebounds.

The Savage Storm got 17 points from Maci Bookout, who finished 7-of-9 from the field. No other SOSU player hit double figures.

Southeastern hit 13-of-19 free shots compared to a 5-of-10 showing by ECU.

The East Central University women's basketball team will continue its road stretch with a trip to Arkansas for a pair of GAC matchups against Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State University.