Box Score Hobbs, NM---Sophomore forward Emmanuel Brown's three-point play with five seconds to play gave Wayland Baptist a 76-75 win over the University of the Southwest on Thursday evening. The victory is the third of the season for the Pioneers.
Senior guard Jason Griffin came off the bench to score 18 points for Wayland. It was his three-pointer with 21 seconds left that made it a one possession game, setting up Brown's game winner. Brown got his opportunity when USW's Demetrius Evans, who had a game-high 29 points including several monster dunks, missed a contested dunk with 17 seconds remaining. After Griffin got the rebound, the Pioneers worked the ball to Andrew Davenport who missed the jumper, but Brown was there for the putback and was fouled on the play. He hit nothing but net on the free throw, putting his team on top for good.
USW had one more opportunity to go back in front, but after a time out with 4.2 seconds on the clock, an errant inbounds pass went off the foot of the Mustang guard to seal the deal for the Pioneers.
Wayland held a 39-30 advantage at the half and got its largest lead when Tommie Sanders hit a jumper in the lane to make it 49-36 with just over 17 minutes remaining. USW slowly worked its way back into the game, finally taking the lead on a trey with 5:21 left.
The WBU men hit 51 percent of their shots from the field and were 7-of-13 from behind the arch. They outscored their opponent 34-26 in the paint and had a 38-27 advantage on the boards, despite playing without 7-0 junior center Taylor Janowicz who suffered an ankle injury in Wednesday's practice.
Griffin finished the game hitting 7-of-10 from the field, including four three-pointers. Rishi Kakad had 15 points and Davenport added ten more.
Johnny Terra was the game's leading rebounder with 10 boards. The sophomore also put in nine points and had three steals. Sanders handed out six assists in the contest.
The Pioneers return to action next Tuesday when the Mustangs come to Hutcherson Center for a rematch. The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m., following the WBU volleyball team's big match against arch-rival Lubbock Christian University.
