Central Oklahoma forward Lizzie Brenner didn't win the LSC North Division Player of the Year, but she showed why she one of the top players in the conference.

            In a showdown with A&M-Commerce star Britney Jordan, who was named the league's top player on the north side, Brenner was just as effective, scoring 24 points and grabbing 11 rebounds as UCO outlasted the Lions, 100-86 in Friday's Lone Star Conference tournament semifinals.

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            The win not only improves the Bronchos to 25-4, but UCO advances to their second straight LSC tournament final. Again, they will face West Texas A&M, which used a 3-point barrage a year ago to win the title, 85-73. In fact, the Bronchos have not won the conference tournament since 1992.  

            Central Oklahoma recorded its fifth 100-point game of the season, but the first of this year's LSC tournament on both the men's and women's bracket. It's only the sixth 100-point game of the women's side in LSC tournament history.

            The Bronchos had five players in double-figures. Cristina Yarbrough scored 20 points and had 11 assists, while Mallory Markus also posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 assists. Ashley Beckley scored 14 points with eight boards and Krista Beaty scored 10 points.

            The Bronchos set an LSC-tournament record 33 assists, just one shy of the school's single-game record.

            For Commerce, the loss likely ends the career for Jordan, who scored 37 points, to go along with six rebounds and six assists. Jordan now has two of the top three scoring efforts in LSC tournament history, including 43 last year against ACU, the single-game record.

            Jordan also broke the tournament record for field goal attempts Friday night with 35, breaking her own record of 33 she set just Wednesday night.

            But she wasn't alone in the scoring department. With only seven players in uniform, A&M-Commerce got some help from Genevieve Campbell, who had 18 points. Ashley Murphy scored 16 points, while Nola Taylor added 11.

            With UCO leading 48-41 at the half, Taylor scored quickly for Commerce to cut the lead to five. But that's when the Bronchos used a 13-0 run to open the gap. Brenner scored five of those points, while Courtney Allen hit a pair of 3-pointers.

            From there, the Bronchos put it on cruise control, with the lead jumping to as much as 21 with 13:58 to play.

            Thanks to Jordan, the Lions stayed somewhat in striking distance. The closest they got was within nine points - 87-78 with 3:17 to play. But UCO quickly answered with a 3-pointer from Traci Murphree and the lead would never get under double-digits again.

CENTRAL OKLAHOMA NOTES

* Central Oklahoma's 100-86 victory over Texas A&M-Commerce in Friday's Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament semifinals marked just the sixth 100-point game in women's tournament history.  The first was in 1986 when Abilene Christian beat Angelo State, 102-56.  The others are: ACU 108, Texas A&M-Kingsville 87 (1989); West Texas A&M 126, Texas A&M-Commerce 38 (1991); ACU 103, Eastern New Mexico (1996); and Hardin 102, Ouachita Baptist 63 (1998).

* The 100 points scored by the Bronchos on Friday is their fifth 100-point game of the season.

* Senior forward Lizzie Brenner hit 11 field goals Friday night, tying Ton'Nea Cox-Williams' single-game school tournament record, which she established in a 1992 win over Abilene Christian.

* Christina Yarbrough set a UCO tournament game record with 11 assists, which is also her career high.  Mallory Markus also set a career-high with 10 assists.

* The Bronchos also set team tournament game records for points (100), field goals made (39), field goals attempted (73), field goal percentage (53.4 percent), 3-point field goal percentage (47.6 percent) and assists (33).  The Bronchos tied the team tournament game record for 3-pointers made with 10, tying the mark set against Eastern New Mexico in 1992 and tied in 1993 against Angelo State.

* Central Oklahoma improved to 9-11 in tournament games with five of those wins coming in the last three seasons.  The Bronchos lost seven straight games from 1993-2005, but have gone 5-2 in the tournament in head coach Guy Hardaker's three seasons.

* Central Oklahoma is in the championship game for the second straight season and just the third time in its history.  In fact, the reprise of last year's title game between West Texas A&M and Central Oklahoma marks just the sixth time in conference tournament history that the same teams have met for the championship in consecutive years. (ACU-West Texas A&M in 1988 and 1989 and 1996 and 1997; and Angelo State and Northeastern State in 2005).

TEXAS A&M-COMMERCE NOTES
* Texas A&M-Commerce all-America guard Britney Jordan probably saw her career come to an end in Friday night's semifinal loss against Central Oklahoma, and if it did she'll finish her career with 2,105 points in only 93 games (22.6 points per game).

* Jordan scored 909 points in 2008-09, which is a new LSC single-season record, breaking the old mark of 836 set by Teresa Jones-Benson of East Central (1997-98).

* Jordan's 37-point effort gives her two of her top three scoring efforts in LSC Post-Season Tournament history to go along with her 43-point effort against Tarleton State in 2007.

* Jordan also took 35 shots from the floor in Friday night's loss, establishing an LSC Post-Season Tournament single-game record, breaking her two-day old record of 33 set Wednesday night against Abilene Christian.  Her 33 shots on Wednesday broke the old record of 31 set in 1985 by ACU's Claudia Schleyer against Howard Payne.

Texas A&M-Commerce

Quotes

Denny Downing

Texas A&M-Commerce Coach

"We played pretty inspired. We ran into a pretty good basketball team tonight. They played 11 people. They just had more bodies than us. To ask our players to player 40 minutes a game is asking a lot. We ride a horse and we can only go to it so often."

About strategy against UCO
"We just wanted to stay out of foul trouble. We planned to sink off them to hit some outside shots. They shoot 50 percent from three. They shot 53 percent from the night. That's why they won."

About the future of A&M-Commerce without Jordan

"I've never had an all-conference player who came in as a freshman. We've made a living off transfers. We try to recruit kids that fit our campus. We've been able to do a really good job at that.

Britney Jordan

"We went through a lot this year to have a team that had just seven players with two of them being walk-ons. We had a great year, Those other six people on the floor we wouldn't trade it for anyone else.

"It was just had the support of my coaches and teammates. Can't say enough for the six others."

About Denny Downing

"He was one of the main reasons why I came here. He cared about me more as a person not as a basketball player. You get a coach like that, good people recognize other good people. I have a bunch of respect for him. I've seen him bend over backwards and stay after to help us.  He cares about every player.

Central Oklahoma

Quotes

Guy Hardaker

Central Oklahoma Coach

"I felt like we played hard all night. We didn't have an answer for Britney. We kind of used tag-team approach. We felt like even if she got her points, we had to make certain that no one else would beat us."

On Strategy

"We tried to guard them a little differently. We did a lot of trapping early. We tried to recover and keep them from catching it once they passed out it. We were trying to out run them. We knew they had seven players, and you knew that fatigue would come into play."

"We talked to them at halftime about extending the lead. We didn't do a lot of adjustments at halftime. Thought about extending our press is about all we did."

About West Texas A&M

"They played as good as  I've ever seen. Every one feels bad about Emily and her injury. You don't want to see anybody get hurt and especially someone as a class act as her."

"There will be no possessions off. They play hard every time down the court. We have not beaten them since I've been at UCO. We've kept it close, but not been able to crawl over that hump. This is a team that might get over the hump. We know if we beat that program, then we might have arrived ourselves."

Mallory Markus

About getting 10 assists

"I haven't been hitting many shots, so I had to find a way to help the team win even if it is passing." 

Lizzie Brenner

About her ability to do a number of things

"I just make sure I'm prepared for my role. When the game keeps going, I was able to find something that worked and was able to keep on doing it."