ECU women fall to host Southwestern

Jeff Cali, The Ada News, Okla.
·2 min read

Dec. 14—WEATHERFORD — The East Central University women's basketball team is still searching for its first Great American Conference victory after suffering an 86-71 loss to host Southwestern Saturday afternoon inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.

East Central dropped to 3-4 overall and 0-3 in conference play, while Southwestern improved to 1-6 and 1-2.

"When the league's worst percentage from the three starts hitting like SWOSU did tonight, there has to be an in-game adjustment and we didn't get that executed at all," said ECU head coach Matt Cole. "I thought it was too little too late on our comeback efforts and they got timely shots that really wore us down."

The Tigers fell victim to a hot-shooting Lady Bulldogs squad Saturday afternoon. SWOSU finished the night 57.1% as a team, compared to 41.7% from ECU. Southwestern hit 13-of-27 (48.1%) 3-point attempts compared to an 8-of-24 (33.3%) effort by ECU.

The Tigers trailed just 18-13 after the first quarter, but after the Lady Bulldogs shot 57.9% in the second quarter, their lead continued to grow. A 3-pointer by Emily Wilson put the Tigers within seven at 37-30 with three minutes remaining in the quarter, but a 9-4 run by the Lady Bulldogs left ECU trailing 46-34 at the break.

Jayden Weiberg's 3-pointer started an 8-0 scoring run at the beginning of the third quarter to get the Tigers within four at 46-42. The Tigers held the Lady Bulldogs to a single-digit lead until SWOSU managed to pull away 63-52 going into the final quarter.

SWOSU continued to hold on to its double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and ECU could not recover.

Emily Wilson, Mackenzie Crusoe, Kennedy Cummings, and Jayden Weiberg all scored in double figures for the visitors.

Wilson led the Tigers with 18 points, going 3-for-5 from 3-point range and 6-for-11 overall while adding a team-high five rebounds.

Crusoe was close behind with 17 points after going 8-for13 from the floor. She also added four boards and six assists.

Cummings scored a career-high 14 points while adding three rebounds and two assists.

Weiberg also scored a career-high of her own with 10 points in the contest. She went 2-for-5 from 3-point range and 3-for-6 overall.

ECU returns to the Kerr Activities Center Saturday to take on Oklahoma Baptist University at 5:30 p.m. before heading into the holiday break.

Note: ECU Sports Information Director Sydney Dungen contributed to this report.