In the first round of the American Athletic Conference Championship, WSU faced their rival team Tulsa. After battling for 45 minutes, the Shockers (14-16) had their season come to close when the Golden Hurricane took the lead in overtime 88-86, on Monday afternoon in Dickies Arena. 

For the first time in history of the series, Tulsa has defeated the Shockers in all three matchups this season.

For the second time this season, the Shockers had five players hit double digits. Carla Bremaud and Jane Asinde finished with 10, Seraphine Bastin with 16, Mariah McCully with 17 and Asia Strong, hitting 20 points for her second game in a row. The five totaled 73 of the team’s 86 points. Strong was 7-for-13 on the floor, 3-of-5 in three-pointers and had six successful rebounds.

“I’m really proud of my teammates,” Senior Asia Strong said. “You know, this is like, basically, my last game playing as like a senior you know, so it’s just like bittersweet.”

The Shockers had their best scoring percentage of the season with 57% as well as three-point percentage 53%. The team also made 12-of-15 free throws on the line. 

“I think for our first game in the tournament, we definitely started out with a bang,” Head Coach Keitha Adams said. 

In the end, Tulsa took advantage of the Shockers turnovers. WSU committed 27 turnovers allowing Tulsa to steal 32 fast break points and outscored the Shockers off turnovers, 27-12.

“Our goal was to have 13 or less turnovers,” Adams said. “We felt like we needed to take really good care of the ball. I feel like that was really the difference. If we would have taken better care of it and had more shots.”

Opening in the second quarter, Tulsa converted 4-of-6 on triples and shot 55.6% from the floor. WSU shot 46.2% on the court, but its six turnovers hurt their offensive output. Six Shockers, led by Strong, opened with scoring at least five points. However, going into halftime, Tulsa led 40-38.

“You know, you’ve got to give credit to Tulsa for hitting some big shots and making some plays,” Adams said. “They’ve got a very very nice, very good team.”

There was no third quarter slump for the Shockers as they managed to outshoot the Golden Hurricane’s 66.7% to 61.5%. The teams scored a total of 43 points and the Shockers captured their first lead in 30 minutes, 61-60.

Tulsa took a five-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but McCully and Bastin managed to tie the score 78-78. The Shockers had a chance to take the lead with 32 seconds left, but McCully’s last second shot bounced off the rim.

In overtime, Tulsa hit two free throws and a three-pointer right off the bat, taking a 83-79 advantage. After being fouled, Bastin’s two successful free throws changed the score 83-81 moments before the teams both made layups, 85-83 Tulsa. 

With 21 seconds to go, Tulsa’s Temira Poindexter took their lead even further with a successful three-pointer. With 1.7 seconds left in the matchup, Strong’s three-pointer cut the deficit to 88-86.

“I’m proud of our team in terms of what kind of ladies we had on our team this year,” Adams said. “A really good group of young people. They played hard all year and gave me great effort. They were great teammates, they were great with one another. Very very competitive and we played hard.”