SHAWNEE, Okla. – The No. 7 seed East Central University women's basketball team saw the 2022-23 season come to an end, falling 63-54 in a tough battle against No. 2 seed Harding University in the Great American Conference Championship quarterfinals at Fire Lake Arena.
 
The loss ended ECU's season with a 11-16 overall record. Harding (24-6) advanced to the semifinals and will meet the winner of the No.3 Henderson State / No. 6 Ouachita Baptist game.
 
"We fought hard until the very end," Interim Head Coach Heather Hurt said. "Shots did not fall for us. We gave great effort to rebounding and tried to keep them off the glass. Not the ending we wanted, but we played hard every single minute and tried to be our best."
 
In the opening contest of the tournament, the first quarter saw a slow start from both teams. The Bisons were held scoreless for seven minutes while layups from Kate Ogle, Mackenzie Crusoe, and Kennedy Cummings gave the Tigers a 6-0 lead. It didn't take much for Harding to cut the deficit of the low scoring period, but ECU would still hold on to the lead 7-5 by the end of the first.
 
The action picked up in the second period as the Tigers doubled their shooting percentage from the first quarter while still maintaining their defensive pressure. Harding tied it 7-all before a layup from Ashlyn Evans-Thompson sparked a 7-0 run to put the Tigers out front 14-7 at the 8:18 mark. The Bisons went on a scoring spurt of their own to cut the deficit, but the Tigers maintained a 21-19 lead going into halftime.
 
Harding found a rhythm after the break and went on a quick 7-0 run to claim their first lead of the game at 25-21. A driving layup from Kennedy Cummings broke up the run before the Bisons' responded with a 9-2 scoring run to take a double-digit lead. Izzy Cummins' layup brought the gap down to single-digits, but two made Harding shots from the charity stripe settled the score 40-30 heading into the final stanza.
 
The Tigers battled the last 10 minutes of play, trimming Harding's lead to 45-43 after a three-pointer from Ashlyn Evans-Thompson and a made free throw by Emily Wilson. Harding answered with back-to-back three pointers, though, and found some more momentum. The Tigers trailed by four points with under five minutes of play remaining, but that would be as close as ECU would get as Harding walked away with the 63-54 win Thursday afternoon.
 
Mackenzie Crusoe and Kennedy Cummings led the Tigers in double-figures. Crusoe scored 17 points going 6-for-17 from the field and was just shy of a double-double with nine boards. She is now only 56 points away from the 1,000 point club.
 
Cummings had 12 points going 6-for-9 from the floor while adding four rebounds, two assists, and two blocks.
 
The game was the last for Tiger seniors Izzy Cummins, Gabby Cummins, and Emma Epperly.
 
Izzy finished her career with 645 points, 262 rebounds, 110 steals, and 1,949 minutes played. Gabby finished her career playing in 92 games and totaling 112 rebounds, 32 assists, and 29 steals. Epperly finished her first and last season with the Tigers playing in 23 games and recording 81 points, 42 rebounds and 16 assists.