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As week one of the women's college basketball season is finishing up, there haven't been that many surprises. I look at the early conference standings every now and then. Providence, Iowa, Kentucky and Southern California have galloped out to 3-0 starts on the season, with Kentucky and Iowa both winning easily yesterday. But I think I would have rather seen any of the games below than Kentucky's 103-38 drubbing of Georgia Southern.
Xavier beat Michigan 79-75 at Michigan in overtime. Yesterday was the end of the early signing period for the National Letter of Intent, and the newest Wolverines must be wondering what they've gotten themselves into. The Musketeers kept up with their foes by use of the long bomb, hitting 11 3-pointers.
Tied at 69-69, Michigan hit the first four points in the overtime, but Xavier answered back with eight straight. With the score 77-75, Xavier senior guard Shatyra Hawkes missed a pair of free throws with 21 seconds, and according to mgoblue.com the Wolverines had the ball on the sideline with 7.8 seconds left in the overtime but turned the ball over on a pass. This time, Hawkes hit both of her free throws when she got the ball back.
Michigan is now 1-2 to start the year, and they've not used the same starting lineup in any of those games.
Northwestern State beat Houston 74-70. After last year's 3-26 season, Todd Buchanan at Houston can't be happy with an 0-2 start and play in the American coming up this season. The Lady Demons led the game for all but 36 seconds, leading by double digits at times. Two keys to Northwestern State's win - the Lady Demons were -10 in turnovers (Houston had 17, Northwestern State had seven) and the Cougars only shot 52 percent (11-for-21) from the free throw line.
Southern Methodist defeats Texas Christian 72-68 in overtime. Remember back in the day when all of these Texas teams were in the Southwest Conference? There were only 438 people to see this one; everyone else missed a great game. Senior Mustang guard Keena Mays scored 22 of her 25 points after the first half was over. The play that sealed the deal was when with SMU leading by four and 22 seconds left in overtime, freshman guard Kiara Perry got a steal and a fast break to turn SMU's lead into a six point lead with 18 seconds left.