Tweet #theGAC  BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Down 16 points with less than eight minutes left in its Great American Conference Women’s Basketball Championships quarterfinal against Oklahoma Baptist, top-seeded Southwestern Oklahoma State scored the next 25 points to pull out an 80-72 win on Thursday from Bruin Fieldhouse.
 
GAC Player of the Year Hailey Tucker started the comeback for SWOSU (26-3) by hitting her third 3-pointer of the game. She scored 10 of her career-high 34 points during the run. Bethany Franks added seven, including the game-tying and go-ahead lay-ups.
 
The upset-minded Lady Bison (13-16) had built the 69-53 by completing a 24-6 of their own that started with a go-ahead 3-pointer from First-Team All-GAC guard McKenzie Cooper and culminated with another Cooper 3-pointer. She scored eight of her 17 points during the burst and Shaylan Coleman added six of her season-high 28 points. Southwestern Oklahoma State missed 18 straight shots from the floor during this run.
 
Tucker added eight rebounds, three blocks, and two steals. In six career GAC Championships, she has averaged 21.5 points per game. Franks grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds, one off the GAC Championship single-game record and added 14 points for her 10^th double-double of the season. Tyra Aska also achieved a double by tallying 13 points and 10 rebounds.
 
The Lady Bulldogs will face the winner of the Southeastern Oklahoma State-Harding contest in Saturday’s third semifinal, set for 5:45 PM. SWOSU won all four contests against the Lady Bisons and Savage Storm during the regular season. SWOSU has eliminated Harding three times in the previous six GAC Championships. Southeastern and Southwestern Oklahoma State have split their two prior GAC Championship meetings.