FORT WORTH, TX: The Texas Wesleyan University women's basketball program (8-19, 3-14) took a 53-46 loss to No. 18 and defending National Champion Oklahoma City University (17-7, 14-3 SAC) on senior night at the Sid Richardson Center on Thursday.
 
The Lady Rams got out to an 11-6 lead to start the game on a Falesha Fuller triple assists by senior Leila Jdily-Ezzad. The Stars followed that up with a 10-0 rally to take a 16-11 lead after one quarter.
 
Texas Wesleyan fought back with an 8-2 run to regain a 21-18 lead on a Chervelle Cox layup midway through the second. OCU did that same by a posting an 8-0 rally to take a 28-21 lead into the halftime.
 
The Lady Rams held the No. 18 Stars to 36 percent from the floor in the first half of play behind good defending and using their speed to keep the game at even pace. Wesleyan went shot for shot for a lot of the half and were within one late in the second quarter before the Oklahoma City made a run to take a lead at the break.
 
The Stars very slowly pulled away in the second half, although the Lady Rams threatened a few times. Courtney Chargois put in a layup with 5:53 left in the third to make it a 30-28 game.
 
Cox nailed a jumper to begin the fourth to make it a three-point, 40-37 game, but that would be as close as Wesleyan would get, taking a 53-46 loss.
 
The Lady Rams were led by Cox, the sophomore played 110 percent for 39 minutes while racking up 12 points and 16 boards. Fuller dropped 13 points and seven rebounds in the game. Courtney Chargois added 13 points.  Senior Jdliy-Ezzad played just 24 minutes but was able to post 5 assists in that time span.
 
The Lady Rams will travel to Plainview, TX to take on Wayland Baptist University in the regular season finale on Saturday, February 27 starting at 5:00 pm.