BOX SCORE

Austin, Texas – Alex O'Neal scored a career-best 16 points, including 13 in the second half, in leading the Concordia University Texas women's basketball team to a 66-62 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor on Monday, Jan. 10 at the Concordia Field House.

Concordia had a 64-59 lead with 23 seconds remaining in regulation after O'Neal hit her second of two free throw attempts. Mary Hardin-Baylor attempted a comeback and made it a one-possession game when Caitlin Barganier drained a 3-pointer the next time down the floor to set up a photo finish.

Kaleigh Landry had a wide open look at a layup in transition after the made basket, but her shot was no good. She managed to get her own rebound and earn a trip to the free throw line, but both of those attempts rimmed out. Margaret Milling, however, got the offensive rebound off of Landry's second shot and drained both of her attempts from the charity stripe with seven seconds left to ice the win for the Tornados.

“It was pretty exciting,” said head coach Rusty Rainbolt, whose team moved into a three-way tie for third place in the West Division with the victory. “Alex O'Neal played fantastic tonight and made some key shots down the stretch, and Margaret Milling was 6-for-6 from the free throw line. It was a good win.”

Trailing by a 29-23 score at the break, Concordia ripped off 13 straight points to take a 41-31 lead with 13:38 left to play. Lashanda Luckey, who scored 12 points in the second half, netted seven and set up O'Neal's trey during the stretch.

Mary Hardin-Baylor (8-5, ASC 5-4), which did not hit a field goal for almost seven minutes, started to rally at the midway point of the frame. The Cru regained the lead at 51-50 when Brittany Zamora converted a rare four-point play, nailing a three from the top of the key as well as the ensuing free throw with 6:24 left. But a good jumper by Luckey followed by a trifecta from O'Neal with just over four minutes on the clock put the Tornados ahead for good.

“We didn't change our offense, but we ran a different one,” added Rainbolt on the adjustments the team made after dropping a 60-51 decision to the same opponent a week ago. “We ran our wide open, full-out motion offense instead of sets. We tried to attack a lot more. We also tried to defend the high post a little bit more tonight to keep the ball out of there.”

After the teams exchanged points to start the game, the Cru broke a 4-4 deadlock on a 3-pointer by Jenny Black and never relinquished the lead during the opening half. The Mary Hardin-Baylor lead only grew to eight points on two occasions and stood at six at the break on a made jumper by Javona Miles.

O'Neal contributed four rebounds and two assists in addition to netting 16 points to lead Concordia, which was playing an opponent with a winning record for the seventh time in eight games. Luckey scored a career-best 14 points, while Tiesha Martin contributed 11 points and seven rebounds. Christen McLee was a spark off the bench, adding seven points and four steals. Lindsay Eaton and Zamora paced Mary Hardin-Baylor with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while dishing out five assists apiece.

Concordia (6-6, ASC 5-4), which has won three straight games for the first time since the 2008-09 season, visits Texas Lutheran on Thursday, Jan. 13 at 5:30 p.m.