**For Immediate Release**
Lady Aggies Cruise in 1st Day Tournament Victory
- by Scott Puryear of Aggie Sports

Goodwell, OK – Four good teams participated in the Lady Aggie Classic at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, which began on Friday. At the close of Day One, the Lady Aggies appeared to be the best of them.

Southwest Baptist 69 St. Gregory’s 53
The opening game of the Lady Aggie Classic was a good one between Southwest Baptist and St. Gregory’s and was close for the entire first half. SBU’s Trisha Lyons hit a bucket at the buzzer to give her team a 35-30 halftime lead.

Southwest Baptist began to pull away in the second half and held a 47-37 lead with 14 minutes left in the game. St. Gregory’s tried to rally several times but seven points was the closest they could get. In the end, Southwest Baptist pulled away in the closing minutes for a 69-53 victory.

Livia Brito of SBU led all scorers with 18 points, and teammate Casey Beavers added 16. Cassandra Reed was high scorer for St. Gregory’s with 17 points and Lee Aduddell chipped in 14.

With the win, SBU raised their record to 4-2 while St. Gregory’s fell to 3-3.

LADY AGGIES 69 Western State 45
In the second game of the night, tournament host OPSU roared out of the blocks with good shooting and tough defense, taking a 15-2 lead over Western State. In what OPSU coach Jerry Olson called a great team effort, the Lady Aggies never slowed up and soundly defeated Western, 69-45.

Western fought their way back into things for a while, even closing the gap to as close as five points (with 5:11 left in the half) but the Lady Aggies led 29-20 at the intermission.

Olson had plenty to say at halftime to his team and the Lady Aggies came out even stronger than they did to open the game. They jumped out fast on a three pointer by Brandi Lewis, followed by a deuce by Diana Garduno, followed by a lay-up by Lewis to up the score to 37-20. Soon, and thanks in part to two fast steals by Amanda Kisner, OPSU was up 47-26 with 14 minutes left to play.

The game got about as rough as you’ll see in women’s basketball and players from both teams collided many times as the clock wound down, and by the five minute mark, OPSU had increased their lead to 60-32. Everyone on the Lady Aggie team contributed and at the final horn, OPSU had raised their record to 4-3 with their 69-45 victory.

After the game, Olson credited his entire squad and was exceptionally pleased with the way they played defense (and not a single Western State player scored in double figures).

OPSU’s Lewis led all scorers with 16 points and Taneisha Rogers had ten. Hard working seniors Michelle Kennedy and Garduno each had nine, and dependable inside player Nina Kuleff scored seven and had a game high 12 rebounds.

With the loss, Western State fell to 2-3.

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