Poor shooting doomed the Park University Gilbert women's basketball team as they dropped its first conference road test 83-66 this evening against OUAZ at Faith Arena in Surprise, Ariz. The Buccaneers move to 5-5 overall and 1-1 in the Great Southwest Athletic Conference.

The Bucs, who have been fighting the flu bug throughout the team this week, got off to a slow start shooting 1-10 over the first 5:15 of the game. Despite this, they only trailed 6-3 coming out of the media time out and tied the game at 6-all on the three-point basket by Hemani Kalia. This would start a 10-3 run to give the Bucs a four-point lead. OUAZ would then go on its own 7-0 run to retake the lead and held a three-point advantage after the first quarter. The Bucs shot 30 percent from the floor, while OUAZ made half of their shots and got to the free throw line eight times. On the bright side, the Bucs took care of the basketball only committing five turnovers in the first half.

The Bucs were outscored 23-15 in the second stanza as OUAZ started to pull away. Again, the Buccaneers only shot about 31 percent from the floor, while the Spirit maintained their 50 percent percentage. The difference in this quarter were the three-point shots. Park made four in the first quarter, but failed to make one in the second. OUAZ finished with a 7-0 run to close out the half and held an 11-point lead.

OUAZ opened the second quarter with another 7-0 run and went on to post a 15-2 run to put the game seemingly out of reach with leads of up to 24 points. But the Buccos did not go away, answering with its own 14-2 run of their own to cut into the lead and almost bring it back to the halftime deficit.  

Entering the final frame, the Bucs trailed by 13. Last year, the Bucs trailed by 20 entering the last quarter and came back to take the lead before losing on a buzzer beater. So, a comeback was possible. The Bucs cut the deficit to nine in the first 5:07 in the quarter and six with 3:32 to go. This was as close they would get as the Spirit then went on a 13-2 run to end the game.   

Freshman Symirah Gray led the team with 16 points. Twelve of those points came in the second half comeback attempt.  Alynna Palacios posted 12 points and led the team with seven rebounds and four steals in 23 minutes. She fouled out midway through the third quarter. Her foul trouble kept the 2024-25 GSAC Defensive Player of the Year on the bench for a good portion of the game and her presence especially on the defensive end was missed.

The Bucs only shot 31 percent from the floor and 17 percent from three. OUAZ shot 46 percent from the field and 36 from three, making eight trifectas to only six for the Bucs. The Spirit also dominated the boards outrebounding the Bucs 58-30. Park Gilbert was able to win the turnover battle forcing 27 Spirit turnovers but only turned those into 24 points.

The Bucs look to turn things around on Saturday as they travel to Prescott, Ariz., to take on Embry Riddle at Eagle Arena starting at 1 p.m.