Alva Review-Courier -

OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 16, 2017) – It's not often a basketball coach can sit back and enjoy the moment when her team is winning, but that was the feeling Stephanie Findley had Thursday night watching her Lady Eagles take apart Rogers State.

Of all of Findley's 600 career wins, it was one of the easiest as the Lady Eagles controlled the game from start to finish and cruised to a 70-45 decision in the Eagles' Nest, giving their coach yet another landmark W in her 32nd season at the helm.

Findley, coaching her 1,000th game at her alma mater, became only the 65th women's basketball coach in college hoops history to record 600 career wins. Already Oklahoma's career leader in coaching wins – by 101 wins over her nearest competition – she now is 35th nationally at any level.

"That's a lot of games – a lot of wins and a lot of losses," Findley said. "But when you get to stick around this long, they tend to add up a little bit. I'm grateful to have the opportunity and I'm excited. It's kind of neat that 600 fell on 1,000. That's kind of cool."

With the game well in hand in the closing minutes, OC players on the bench began donning T-shirts reading "Coach Stephanie Findley 600 career wins. After the buzzer, they posed for a picture under the basket with balloons that read "600" before dining on cupcakes brought in to celebrate the occasion.

One could hardly blame them for celebrating with gusto – it was only the second time Findley had won such a landmark game at home. Wins No. 100, 200, 300 and 400 all happened outside Oklahoma (in Nebraska, Texas, Alabama and Tennessee, respectively) before 500 – against Missouri Valley on Nov. 19, 2010 – came in the Eagles' Nest.

"We did in in convincing fashion tonight," Findley said. "It wasn't a close game, so I didn't have to sweat it too much. (Rogers State is) a good team. They just weren't hitting shots tonight and that fell in our favor. It was fun. It was kind of relaxing those last few minutes to know that I was going to get it and get by that and focus on the conference tournament coming up."

Coming off two rousing road wins last week at regional power St. Mary's (Texas) and Texas A&M International, OC (14-12, 9-5 Heartland Conference) quickly put to rest any worries about overlooking Rogers State (8-17, 3-11). The Hillcats took an early 6-2 lead, but a 3-pointer by McKenzie Stanford started a 9-0 run and OC never looked back.

Addy Clift ended the first quarter with a 3-pointer that pushed OC's lead to 21-12 and a bucket by Emma Gade right before halftime put the Lady Eagles up 37-19. OC kept building on the lead throughout the second half and was up by as many as 28 points in the latter stages.

Stanford continued her climb up the Heartland's career scoring list. Her 19-point performance gave her 1,636 for her career, moving her into third place past Erin Griffin of St. Mary's (1,631 from 2000-04). Stanford finished the game two points shy of moving into sole possession of second place on the list, but that will have to wait for Saturday's game against Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Clift added 12 points off the bench while Parker had 11. OC shot a healthy 41.8 percent from the field, had a season-low five turnovers and committed only nine fouls.

Rogers State shot 25.8 percent from the field – including 21.9 percent from 3-point range – and didn't have a player reach double digits in scoring. Heather Roberts led the Hillcats with seven points.

OC will honor six seniors – Stanford, Parker, Gade, Hannah Holasek, Kylee Hicks and Dontasia McAfee – during a Senior Day ceremony following the Lady Eagles' 1 p.m. game vs. UAFS on Saturday.