Box Score courtesy of Tommy Young
Plainview Daily Herald
The Wayland Baptist Pioneers played their best game of the season on Saturday, upseting 12th-ranked Oklahoma Christian 71-53 in Sooner Athletic Conference basketball action.
Oklahoma Christian (16-4, 8-4) scored the first eight points of the contest, but after a 30-second time out by WBU Head Coach Robert Davenport, the Pioneers (7-10,3-9) came to life.
Down 23-18 with 8:50 left in the half, the Pioneers went on a 10-4 run, taking the lead on Tommie Sanders's put back with 1:45 left in the half.
Sophomore Johnny Terra opened a 12-2 Wayland run to start the second half with a three-pointer from the right corner.
The Eagles didn't score their first bucket of the second half until the 15:12 mark when Chad Endres corralled a rebound off a David Jackson miss and got the lay up to make the score 40-29 in favor of Wayland.
The Pioneers led by as many as 20 in the second half, allowing the Eagles to get no closer than 12 points on a couple of occasions.
Taylor Janowicz, WBU's 7-0 junior post, had a huge game for the Pioneers with 23 points and nine rebounds, but it was Tommie Sanders, a 5-10 junior form Las Vegas, Nev. that initially got the Pioneers going offensively.
"With Tommie you are going to get energy every time, all the time, even if he has a broken leg," said Davenport. "He did a good job focusing today, and he had only one turnover."
"Whoever is the point guard, it's their job to get the team going," Sanders said. "I tell them I'm always ready to go and they say they've got my back and we are ready to go."
Sanders finished up with 10 points and seven assists.
WBU shut down the reigning SAC Player of the Year, Jason Taylor, who came into the contest averaging just under 20 points and 11 rebounds per outing. The Pioneers limited the 6-8 senior to just three points.
"I knew Taylor (Janowicz) would give (Jason Taylor) problems," Davenport said. "His length was a problem for (Taylor)."
"Jason took just seven shots and four of those were 3s," Davenport continued. "(Janowicz) only let him get three shots, that's good."
Davenport is pleased with the effort the Pioneers have put forth, especially defensively, the past three or four games.
"We've worked hard in practice," he said. " It seems that the light is finally coming on."
"Coach told us all along if we worked hard we would be better in January and February than we were in November and December," said Janowicz, who also recorded two assists, two blocks and a steal in the contest.
David Jackson paced the Eagles offense with 12 points. Chad Endres and Andre Vaughn added 10 points each.
The Pioneers will look to extend their win streak to three games when they return to action at 8 p.m. at Hutcherson Center against John Brown University.
