Harding women overpower Aggies

Harding University’s women’s basketball program has always been known for a strong inside presence and Tuesday night the Bison used that might in the paint to hand Cameron a 78-48 setback at the Aggie Gym.

It was obvious from the first tip that with two games under their belts the Bison were going to be a tough challenge for Jeff Mahoney’s Aggies who were making their season debut after missing out on two tough tests last week in Colorado when ice and snow left CU unable to make it over Raton Pass.

The CU women were scheduled to play Adams State University and University of Colorado Springs but after the heavy snow and ice prevented them getting past Raton, the team headed back to Lawton.

“It was pretty obvious that they had two games under their belts and this was our opener,” Mahoney said. “They are always going to be a tough challenge for anyone with their group in the paint and we just weren’t able to match up with them.”

The Bison wound up scoring 34 points in the paint and 21 more on second-chance points and the Aggies just couldn’t consistently slow them down.

Harding wound up hitting 45 percent from the field, 27-of-60, and that included the Bison missing all 10 shots from long range.

Cameron was unable to find the range most of the game, hitting just 27.3 percent from the field on 15-of-55 shooting, and the Aggies sank just 3-of-20 from long range, a phase of the game that Mahoney’s clubs have been strong in over the past several seasons.

“Our shot selection just wasn’t very good,” Mahoney said. “We knew they were going to have an edge in the paint and they were coming off screens and just giving us problems with their physicality.

“I thought we did a pretty good job defensively at times. We held their big girl (Sage Hawley) to just nine points but they have some other girls who knocked down shots and we didn’t always contest some of those.”

Harding jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead before Cameron was able to get a few good looks and eventually got within a couple at 15-13 with 9:40 left in the second quarter when Mercedes Mancha drilled the first Aggie trey.

The deficit was still two at 19-17 before the Bison went on a 9-0 run to force Mahoney to call a timeout. That run continued after the timeout and in a matter of a couple of minutes the margin ballooned to 34-20 and it never got much closer after that.

Cameron did see each of the 12 players suited up score but the highest was seven points from Shamica Smith, Madison Grigg and Grace Alverson. Mahoney also pointed out that his crew collected just four assists but on the positive side they turned it over just nine times.

The Aggie women will hit the road Friday for a 5:30 p.m. matchup with East Central in Ada.