UMKC women can’t close out Oral Roberts

The women’s basketball team from UMKC failed to hang on to a narrow lead with mere seconds to play against Oral Roberts, and came up short in overtime on Wednesday.

In the first victory of the season on Dec. 2, the UMKC women’s basketball team showed a tremendous ability to finish off possessions on both sides of the court. At home on Wednesday against Oral Roberts, whether or not the Roos would earn a second consecutive victory depended on their ability to finish a game.

UMKC (1-7) was unable to protect a two-point lead with just over nine seconds left in regulation, and Oral Roberts (6-3) went on to claim a 76-73 win in overtime. Roos head coach Jacie Hoyt spoke about the team’s effort to finish after the game.

"“Every single possession matters. We have to execute both offensively and defensively every single possession. [We talked about] not overlooking anything, getting rebounds, boxing out, pulling loose balls in. I told the team to foul the last seven seconds and they didn’t foul. There were a lot of lessons and that was my message. We just have to learn from this. We have to grow from it. It should hurt to lose, but at some point we have to transfer things we do in practice to games. I think at the end of the game, some of that transfer wasn’t there.”"

In some ways, UMKC did execute well. The team shot 46 percent from the field for the game, and the 73 points are the second-highest total of the season. The Roos forced 25 turnovers, off which they scored 29 points. There were other stats from the game which weren’t so conducive to victory, however.

Oral Roberts overcame the volume of turnovers with stellar shooting, hitting nearly 51 percent of their shots overall. Many of those shots were wide-open lay-ins from two feet away due to breakdowns in the UMKC zone. Oral Roberts also got 19 second-chance points due to a 40-24 advantage in rebounding. Hoyt talked about the rebound disparity as well.

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"“I think they [Oral Roberts] just wanted the ball more. Rebounding isn’t about size or skill, it’s just a lot of heart and unfortunately their team wanted it more than we did tonight.”"

Enabling the Roos to have a shot to win the game at the end of regulation was senior forward Kiana Law. Law notched a point total of 29 on 13-17 shooting from the field while grabbing six rebounds. Law also blocked a shot and recorded two steals. The 29 points are not only a career- and season-high for her, but a season-high for the team as well. Law reflected on her performance after the contest.

"“Before the game coach told us that we were going to dominate in the post. My teammates trusted me when they saw that I was on fire and they just kept giving me the ball.”"

Also in double figures were senior guards Aries Washington with 22 and Samantha Waldron with 14. Washington led the team in rebounds with seven while senior guard Daijane Dillard had four assists to pace the squad in that category. Senior guard India Johnson set the team standard for steals on the night with three.

Next: Mizzou Basketball: Best head coaches of all-time for Missouri

UMKC will try again to secure its second win of the season at Wichita State (2-8) on Saturday, Dec. 9. Fans can find out how much the Roos learned about finishing games then.