Loper Women Clamp Down on the 'Chos in the Fourth, Win 65-57

Kearney, Neb. – Senior point guard Jillian Aschoff scored 20 and junior forward Tara Biocanin grabbed two late offensive rebounds that led to buckets to help Nebraska Kearney edge Central Oklahoma, 65-57, Thursday night at the Health & Sports Center.
This is the only meeting between UNK (11-9, 4-5) and UCO (7-11, 2-7) this season. The Lopers have now taken six straight in the series.
UNK led for 31 minutes on the night but never by more than eight points. The Bronchos tallied 12 points off 11 Loper turnovers, grabbed 21 offensive rebounds and won the third quarter by a 19-16 margin. They then converted a layup to start the fourth to tie things at 49.
The teams traded one and two point leads almost the rest of the way with a layup by junior forward Jordan Sears (McPherson, Kan.) making it 60-57 Lopers with two minutes to play. The bucket came after Biocanin (Serbia) rebounded a miss three. UNK followed with a stop and then Biocanin rebounded a Sears missed layup with Aschoff (Lincoln Pius) sinking a jumper this time. That made it 62-57 with 1:17 left and pretty much secured things. UCO finished 4 of 18 from the field in the fourth and had only one point in the last four minutes.
“There’s an urgency we have sometimes that makes us really hard to guard and hard to score on. And then sometimes that urgency goes and when it does, it becomes a little bit more challenging,” said UNK head coach Drew Johnson. “Our challenge for them is to have that urgency all of the time. When we do, we’re a tough basketball team. Tonight, we found a way and held them to 10 in the fourth quarter.”
Aschoff reached her total by making 8 of 14 shots while also supplying four assists and four rebounds in playing all 40 minutes. Next, Sears had 13 on 6 of 13 shooting with Biocanin at eight points and six rebounds (four offensive). Off the bench, redshirt freshman guard Emma Rowan (Magnolia, Texas) was at five points, six rebounds (two offensive), a steal and assist.
“We weren’t sure if we could score on number two (Jerney Bennett) but Tara did a great job of taking it at her. Got a couple of big o-rebounds and she’s been playing some really big minutes for us of late,” said Johnson. “The X factor in the game was Emma. Without Saniya (Simmons), we didn’t speed the ball up (defensively) at all last Saturday. Tonight, it didn’t result in a bunch of turnovers but in the fourth quarter they couldn’t run their base offense.
UCO was led by starter Kaitlyn McCarn (15 points, nine rebounds) and reserve Nykaiya Dillard (11 points in 12 minutes).
The Lopers host Rogers State Saturday at noon; that game was moved two hours due to the impending storm. The Hillcats (6-12, 3-6) fell tonight at Fort Hays State, 73-46.