Alva Review-Courier -

DURANT, Okla. – Lady Tigers battle in tough matchup with Southeastern Oklahoma State and fall 69-63.

Freshman Rylee Lavender scored a career high 18 points on 4-8 from behind the three point line. Madison Brittain put in 12 points and five assists while Eden Crown added 12 points and eight rebounds. Maija Gertsone had 10 first half points in the game.

The Lady Tigers started the game hot growing a 7-3 lead which included a Madison Brittain jumper and Maija Gertsone three pointer. Madison Raney and Madison Brittain had back to back three pointers to give the Lady Tigers a six point lead at 14-8. The Savage Storm went on a 9-0 run before Jakyya Clay made a jumper in her first game back off injury. SEOSU hit a three with six seconds left in the quarter to take a four point lead.

In the second quarter, the Lady Tigers tied the game at 23 on a Madison Raney three-pointer. Ouachita would go down by seven before a Rylee Lavender three and Eden Crow jumper would cut the Savage Storm's lead to two at 35-33. The Lady Tigers would go into the half down 38-33 being led by Maija Gertsone and her 10 points.

The second half started with Eden Crow cutting the lead to three on a jumper. However, after the jumper points were hard to come by for Ouachita. Rylee Lavender cut the SEOSU lead to under 10 with a three-pointer at the 4:16 mark. The Lady Tigers, however, would go down by 15 heading into the fourth quarter.

The true fight of the Lady Tigers came out in the fourth quarter as they outscored the Savage Storm 21-12. Rylee Lavender would score 12 of her 18 points in the fourth to spark Ouachita on the comeback attempt. The Lady Tigers found themselves down 68-54 before Madison Brittain would shoot and make five consecutive free throws in 20 seconds. That started a 9-0 run that would see Ouachita pull within five points at 68-63 with 1:27 left in the game. The Tigers had a couple of opportunities to close the gap even more but just could not get the shots to fall.

Quick Facts

The Lady Tigers had 18 assists on 23 made buckets.

They outrebounded the Savage Storm 31-25.

Of those 31 rebounds 7 were offensive.

The game was the best assist to turnover margin on the season with 18 assists – 16 turnovers.

The Lady Tigers take the court next at East Central on Saturday January 26 at 1:00 PM