Alva Review-Courier -

ADA, Okla. – SWOSU Women's Basketball used a huge second half to pull away and beat East Central 78-57 on Thursday night to get back to their winning ways. Hailey Tucker posted a monstrous double-double leading the Dawgs with 22 points and 18 rebounds while Hayden Priddy scored 20 of her own to make it seven straight games scoring double-digits.

Both teams edged each other by a single basket in the first two quarters, as SWOSU ended the first quarter up 19-17 and went into the locker room tied 33-33 with the Tigers. It was out of the locker room that the Lady Bulldogs established themselves after jumping out to an 11-point lead after halftime thanks to buckets from all five starters.

The post-halftime run spanned more than four minutes and allowed SWOSU to play with breathing room the rest of the game. ECU tried going on a run of their own, but the Dawgs quickly answered and went on to extend the lead to 59-46 by the end of the third quarter. The fourth quarter was controlled by SWOSU as the Lady Bulldogs outscored East Central 19-11 in the quarter and went on to win by 21 points, the Dawg's largest lead of the game.

Four SWOSU starters scored double-digit figures on the night highlighted by Tucker and Priddy. Savannah Gray netted 13 while Tyra Aska added 12. Taylor Hedrick gave the Dawgs seven points off the bench, while Whitney Dunn aided in the rebounding category by grabbing 11 boards.

"I felt like our team responded well after halftime but we struggled a little bit in the first half," Head Coach Kelsi Musick said in her postgame interview. "I thought our defense was pretty good, we did a much better job defending than we did last game and it showed."

The win moves SWOSU to 9-4 on the season, 5-2 in league play and a perfect 4-0 following a loss. The Lady Bulldogs will return home on Saturday to take on Southern Nazarene at 1:00 pm inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.