TULSA – The University of Denver women's basketball team got a 27 point afternoon from
Meghan Boyd, a shooting performance that included seven triples, to carry the Pioneers past Oral Roberts 69-64 in overtime on Saturday afternoon inside the Mabee Center.
Inside the Box Score:
Boyd shot 7-for-12 from beyond the arc to finish with 27 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals, playing 40 minutes of the 45-minute game.
Uju Ezeudu chipped in 15 points, to go with four rebounds, four assists a steal and two blocks.
Indeya Sanders got Denver's offense going in the first quarter, finishing with nine points and six assists.
Denver shot 17-for-19 from the free-throw line, including 6-for-6 in the final minute of overtime to secure the victory. The Pioneers also made 10 three-pointers in a game for the sixth time this season, shooting 10-for-23 from beyond the arc.
First Quarter:
Denver's defense was the story of the opening quarter, holding Oral Roberts to just 15% from the field, while forcing seven turnovers and holding the Golden Eagles to six points in the opening 10 minutes.
After the Golden Eagles opened the scoring on the first possession, Denver went on a 12-2 run over a 6:35 span. Ezeudu had six in the run.
Sanders added five in the frame, including a triple in the 12-2 run and a buzzer-beating jumper in the lane to cap the quarter.
Second Quarter:
Oral Roberts opened the quarter on a 12-3 run to take an 18-17 lead with 3:55 remaining in the first half.
Emily Counsel hit a triple to put an end to the Oral Roberts spurt, starting a 9-2 run for the Pioneers to restore the lead to six. ORU cut the margin to four at the intermission with a bucket on its final possession, but Denver led 26-22 heading into the locker room.
Denver had seven different players score in the first half, and four different Pioneers hit a triple in the opening 20 minutes.
Third Quarter:
Boyd got Denver's offense kickstarted in the third quarter with triples on back-to-back possessions, sandwiched around a Golden Eagles bucket to give the Pioneers a 32-24 lead with eight minutes to play in the third.
Oral Roberts went on a 10-2 run in the next three minutes heading into the media timeout, leveling the score at 34-34.
Both teams went scoreless in the three minutes coming out of the timeout before another Boyd triple broke the drought and put the Pioneers back in-front at 37-34 with 1:40 to play.
Boyd hit two more big triples in the final stages of the period to put the Pioneers up 40-36 with 10 minutes to play.
Fourth Quarter:
An
Anna Jackson bucket and another Boyd triple made it a seven-point game with under eight minutes to go.
The Golden Eagles worked their way back into the contest, tying the score at 54-54 with 1:18 to play. An 8-1 run for ORU gave the Golden Eagles the lead back at 56-54 with 36 tics to go, but Sanders answered with two clutch free-throws to tie it back up at 56-56.
Denver's defense stood tall down the stretch and forced Delaney Nix into a tough shot at the buzzer that she couldn't get to go to send the game into overtime.
Overtime:
Boyd scored on Denver's first possession with 4:09 to play to put the Pioneers in-front. ORU evened it up with a pair of free-throws but
Makayla Minett hit a lay-up on the next possession to put the Pioneers right back in-front with 1:50 to play in the extra session. ORU split a pair at the line to pull within one, but there wasn't a bigger triple than Boyd's seventh of the day that put the Pioneers up three with 68 seconds to go.
Ezeudu, Boyd and Sanders combined to go 6-for-6 from the free-throw line down the stretch to pull away with a 69-64 victory.
Notes:
- Denver's six points allowed in the first quarter was a season low in any quarter this season.
- It is the third single-digit quarter for Denver's defense this season
- 9 vs. Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Nov. 26 (4thQ)
- 8 vs. Oral Roberts on Jan. 10 (1stQ)
- Denver led at the half for the third time in Summit League play (2-1)
- Meghan Boyd finished in double figures for the second straight game, the 13th time this season and the 40th time in her career.
- Boyd finished with 20+ points for the third time this season.
What's Next:
Denver returns to Hamilton Gymnasium next week to host the North Dakota schools. The Pioneers will take on UND on Thursday at 7 p.m. MT on National Girls and Women in Sports Night, presented by Safeway.
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