DURANT, Okla. – Carissa Caples scored nine straight points to start the fourth quarter and finished with 25 to lead Harding to a 71-59 victory over 23rd-ranked Southeastern Oklahoma Thursday at Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
Harding extended its winning streak to five games and improved to 12-7 overall and 9-4 in the GAC. The Lady Bisons are tied with Arkansas Tech and Southern Nazarene for second place in the conference standings. Southeastern lost for the first time in its last 10 home games and fell to 13-4 overall and 10-3 in conference. The Storm maintain a one-game lead in the GAC.
Harding led 46-45 entering the fourth quarter before Caples hit a pair of jumper sandwiched around a 3-pointer. Her two free throws with 7:30 left in the game gave Harding a 55-48 lead.
Caples made a long 3-pointer with 5:01 left that started an 11-2 Harding run. The stretch included two Cheyenne Brown layups, a Jordan Elder layup and two Peyton Padgett free throws.
Caples made 8 of 16 shots, including four 3-pointers, and had her second game this season with more than 20 points. Elder added 13 points and Brown had 10.
Harding outrebounded Southeastern 41-29, including a career-high 15 boards from Padgett. The Lady Bisons had a season-low five turnovers.
Katie Webb led Southeastern with 16 points.
Elder and Caples both had eight first half points to lead Harding to a 35-31 halftime advantage.
The Lady Bisons led 31-19 with 3:41 left but made only one of their last eight shots, and Southeastern rallied to close their deficit to four points after 20 minutes.
Harding shot 41% in the half and made five 3-pointers. Southeastern shot 44% and also had five 3s. Tracy Johnson made all three of her 3-point attempts and led all players with nine points at the break.
Southeastern Oklahoma scored the first six points of the second half as part of an 18-4 run stretching back to the second quarter. Kennedy Cooper's 3-pointer ended the run. Harding shot only 21% in the third quarter but led by one going to the fourth quarter.
Harding plays the second of three straight road games Saturday at East Central in Ada, Oklahoma.
