Oakland women fall to UMKC, earn sixth seed for Summit League tourney
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Oakland will have to play through the Summit League women’s basketball tournament as a No.6 seed.
Elizabeth Hamlet scored a career-high 15 for the Oakland women’s basketball team, but it wasn’t enough as the Golden Grizzlies in a 63-54 loss to UMKC in the team’s final regular season game on Monday in the Swinney Athletic Center.
Bethany Watterworth added 17 points and moved into 9th in career points at OU (11-16, 7-11).
“Now it’s tournament time,” said Oakland head coach Beckie Francis. “We’re going to find out our tournament seed and we’ll be ready to prepare.”
Watterworth scored 14 points in the second half to lead Oakland’s come-from-behind effort.
OU trailed by as many as 15 points, but used a 14-4 run in the second half to cut the UMKC (20-10, 11-7) lead to just three points with 10 minutes to play. With her game-high 17 points Watterworth moved past Jessica Pike on Oakland’s all-time scoring list with 1,487 career points.
Hamlet equaled her career-high with three 3-pointers. With Oakland trailing early, she scored six straight points to give the Golden Grizzlies the lead. She had nine points in the first half, as OU trailed 32-20 at the interval.
The Kangaroos used a 14-2 run in the first half to take a lead that they did not surrender for the rest of the night. Dayon Hall-Jones had 10 points in the first half, but was held scoreless in the second. Eilise O’Connor led UMKC with 16 points, including 11 in the second half, and Ashli Hill reached double-digits with 11. UMKC attempted 66 shots and hit 37.9 percent from the field.
The Golden Grizzlies had eight blocks, with Brittany Carnago and Victoria Lipscomb posting three each. Carnago scored seven points, while Lipscomb provided a team-best six assists. The Golden Grizzlies shot 35.7 percent from the field, including 45.2 percent in the second half.
With a 7-11 record in Summit League play, the Golden Grizzlies finish the season in a three-way tie for sixth place with IUPUI and Western Illinois.
The next game for OU is the quarterfinals of The Summit League Championship. Due to tiebreaker scenarios involving the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), Oakland will not know if it is the No. 6 or No. 7 seed until the latest RPI is released on Tuesday morning.
As the No. 6 seed, Oakland would face a rematch with No. 3 seed UMKC on Sunday, while the No. 7 seed will face Oral Roberts on Saturday. Both games would be played at 3:30 p.m. ET at the Sioux Falls Arena.
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