UTPB women's basketball pulled away late in the second half to earn its first Heartland Conference victory of the season with an 87-69 defeat of Oklahoma Panhandle State at the Falcon Dome Saturday afternoon.

UTPB struggled to find its footing after the opening tip, trailing the Aggies by as many as five at 14-9 a little over eight minutes into the game.

But the Falcons found their offense, scoring 14-straight points by making 5-of-6 shot attempts, capped by five straight points from Katreese Locket to go on top of OPSU 23-14.

Shots from behind the arc on the team's final two possessions of the first half including a three at the buzzer by Jocelyn Cook, helped UTPB go into halftime leading by 14.

Oklahoma Panhandle State didn't go down without a fight in the second half. The Aggies fought to cut the UTPB lead down to two possessions with a 3-pointer by Morgan Wickwartz and a free throw and bucket by Kortney Williams to trail by six with 10:08 remaining.

UTPB was able to keep OPSU from getting any closer than five points and picked up the defensive pressure to keep the Aggies from completing a field goal in the final eight minutes of the game, limiting them to  14 points from the free throw line.

The Falcons took advantage of OPSU's inability to shoot at the end of the game, rallying to out-score the Aggies 27-14 over the final eight minutes to close out an 18 point victory.

Jocelyn Cook scored a season-high 25 points in the victory, shooting 6-of-8 from the field, 5-of-6 from behind the arc and making all eight of her free throws. She helped carry UTPB in the second half, scoring 15 points by hitting all three of her shots from downtown and completing all six of her free throws.

Loya was 5-of-7 from three-point range on the afternoon to add 17 points while Locket dropped 12 points and Valerie Barriga scored 11.

Sarah Johnson led Panhandle with 20 points and four assists on the afternoon.

The Falcons are off for the next week, returning at home Monday December 2 for their second game of the season against Angelo State.