Lizzie Brenner poured in 26 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and added a school-record-tying eight steals to lead Central Oklahoma to an easy 67-50 win over Abilene Christian Saturday afternoon in the Lone Star Conference semifinals at Bruin Field House.

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            The Bronchos, who have now won seven straight games to improve to 25-4 overall, advance to the LSC Tournament finals for only the second time and the first since 1992, the last year UCO won the title.

            Central Oklahoma, the top-seed in the LSC North, will face the winner of West Texas A&M-Angelo State in Sunday's championship game.

            Paced by Brenner, who had finished the game two steals shy of a triple-double, UCO also received 11 points from Micha Hester off the bench and 10 from Cassidy Pillow.

            Abilene Christian (18-11) had won 10 of 11 games before Saturday's loss. Jamie Meyer and Jody Meyer each led the Wildcats with 10 points. Audrey Maxwell was held to just seven points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field. Maxwell scored 33 points in Thursday's quarterfinal win over Texas A&M-Commerce.

            While Maxwell cooled down from the previous game, UCO's top player did not. 

Brenner showed why she was named LSC North Co-Player of the Year in Thursday's quarterfinal win over Tarleton State when she scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

            Saturday against ACU, she was just as good, especially on defense. Her eight steals tied UCO's school record, set by Laura Hamilton on two occasions from 2003-05. Brenner did set single-game records for UCO in an LSC tournament game in both points and assists.

It wasn't long for Brenner to heat up, scoring nine of her team's first 17 points as the Bronchos jumped out to an early 17-7 lead.

            From there, UCO never looked back, eventually stretching the lead to double-digits before halftime. The Bronchos went to the locker room on a high note when Cristina Yarbrough nailed a 3-pointer from the baseline just before the horn to give UCO a 38-23 halftime edge.

            The Bronchos kept the pressure on to start the second half, quickly building the lead to 20 on Pillow's short jumper with 17:16 to play. 

            ACU never got any closer than 15 points for the remainder of the game.

            The Wildcats shot just 30.4 percent from the field, making just 17-of-56 shots.

UCO QUOTES

Coach Guy Hardaker - General comments...

"I'm extremely proud of these girls.  We take a lot of pride in knowing that when we walk into the gym that we are going to be smaller than the other team."

Coach Hardaker on game planning against ACU's Audrey Maxwell...

"We have been practicing the "post-double" on her every time that she had the ball in her hands.  We were actually just going to use it as an adjustment, but it worked so well that we just kept going to that.  This is the best I've seen the girls execute that strategy all year."

Lizzie Brenner on the possibility of playing West Texas A&M tomorrow...

"We are confident going into tomorrow, no matter who we play.  We want a shot at West Texas, but we are going to focus on what we need to do as a team first.

ACU QUOTES

Shawna Lavender

OPENING STATEMENT: You can't spot a team like that a 15-point lead. They
came out ready to play, we didn't. They were ready to play as we came out
flat. Our offense just couldn't get into any type of rhythm.

On what UCO did against Audrey Maxwell: We did not a good job of getting her
the ball. We were unable to get the ball reversed quickly enough. We needed to
step up and hit shot from other spots and that didn't happen tonight. UCO
did a good job of getting us to rush our shots.

On a possible berth in the regionals: "Pretty slim. We've been playing well.
We have only lost five games in our last 20. We lost some games early that will hurt
us. We needed a win today to have a chance. We had a chance. We are sitting
on the outskirts. We really hurt our chances with the loss."


Jamie Meyer

Style of Game:

"It was a physical game. We were kind of intimated by their aggressiveness."

Central Oklahoma

            The Bronchos advance to the LSC Tournament final for the first time since 1992, when they won the title . . . Since that season, UCO was just 2-8 in tournament games before this season . . .Brenner tied a UCO school record with eight steals, matching Laura Hamilton, who had eight steals twice from 2003-05 . . . Brenner's eight steals are the most by a UCO player in an LSC tournament game, besting Hamilton's six steals against Angelo State in 2005 . . . Cristina Yarborough set an UCO tournament record with eight assists, surpassing Bobbi Hardy, who had seven against ACU in 1992 . . . UCO has now won six straight games, dating back to Feb. 9 . . . The Bronchos have a 3-2 record against ACU in tournament games . . . UCO improves to 18-1 this season when leading at halftime . . . By making 10-of-13 free throws, the Bronchos shot 76.9 percent from the line. UCO is now 15-3 this year when hitting at least 75 percent from the stripe.

Abilene Christian notes:

• Abilene Christian was making its 18th appearance in the tournament semi-finals.  They fall to 13-5 in LSC Tournament semi-finals.
• The Wildcats trailed by 15 points at the half against Central Oklahoma, their largest halftime deficit in any game this season.  The previous was when they trailed Midwestern State by 11, 44-33, at Wichita Falls on Jan. 26.
• ACU falls to 6-6 when trailing at the half.
• The 50 points by the Wildcats was their lowest output of the season.  The previous low came is the season opener against Incarnate Word, a 59-51 loss in Austin.  It also marked only the third time all season that ACU has been held under 60 points.
• Audrey Maxwell and Alex Guiton, ACU's two leading scorers on the season, were held to a combined 13 points, the lowest combined total all year.  The previous low for the duo was a combined 17 points at Midwestern State.
• The 17-point loss was the second-worst of the year for ACU.  Midwestern State defeated Abilene Christian by 22 in Wichita Falls, 85-63.