by Ajai Simmons (Yakama/Acoma Pueblo) had a career-high 21 points and made five three’s
FINDLAY, Ohio – The women’s basketball team went into overtime for the first time since Feb. 8, 2018 at Purdue Northwest and fell 71-68 at Findlay on Friday. The Panthers came out blazing with a 26-10 lead after the first quarter, but the Oilers kept chipping away and pulled off the comeback after Sydney Kin made a three-pointer straight away with less than a second left in overtime for the winning shot. Davenport led for 38:02 of game time and the largest lead of the game for Findlay came on the winning basket.
The game featured five lead changes and three ties and the Panthers led by as many as 22 points with 9:15 left in the second quarter. Findlay was allowed to come back due to 32 turnovers by the Panthers mainly against Findlay’s 2-3 zone. Davenport actually held a 29-22 edge in points off turnovers but 19 of those came in the big first quarter.
Davenport led 54-45 after three quarters but Findlay tied it up at 57 with 6:03 remaining. Neither team led by more than one possession through regulation and the Panthers forced overtime when Toni Grace had a putback basket with 12 seconds left. The Oilers had two shots to win it but both fell short.
Ajai Simmons hit a three-pointer to open the scoring in overtime as part of her career-high 21 points and it was her fifth triple of the game. Findlay tied it up on a lay-up with 1:27 to go and the Panthers had a three by Grace which missed and the Oilers called timeout with two seconds to play. The ball advanced to mid-court after the timeout and Kin got the inbounds pass and nailed the game-winner to give her a game-high 26 points. She finished 11-of-18 from the floor and that was her only triple try of the contest. Kin and Bridget Landin each had a double-double. Kin had 11 rebounds to go with her 26 points while Landin had 19 points and 13 rebounds.
Simmons went 8-of-14 from the floor including 5-of-9 from the arc for her 21 points. She also had four steals and one assist. Loni Sales got her first start of the season and scored 14 points to go with a career-high seven assists, five rebounds and two steals. Grace added 11 points and eight rebounds. The telling stat of the game was that Findlay went 13-of-21 from the free throw line compared to 1-of-3 for the Panthers.
