Box Score PLAINVIEW, TEX --- Rishi Kakad scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the first half and the Pioneers won their third straight at home, 68-59, over John Brown on Friday afternoon.
The visiting Golden Eagles jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but the Wayland men answered with five straight on a basket by Tommie Sanders and a traditional three-point play from Bobby Watkins.
Kakad put in 11 of the game's next 14 points to give the Pioneers a 16-7 advantage, and Sanders' two free throws made it an 11 game less than a minute later.
Kakad's fourth trey of the half made it 27-15 with six minutes left in the first period. After JBU cut its deficit back to single digits, Johnny Terra hit his only three-pointer to make it 30-18.
The visitors closed out the half with a 12-5 run to make it 35-30 at the intermission, and then scored the first basket of the second period to close the gap to three.
Wayland responded with ten straight to make it 44-32 at the 16:11 mark, but John Brown worked its way back to within two, 50-48, six minutes later.
The Pioneers led 63-57 with 1:44 remaining when Jason Griffin nailed a three that essentially put the contest out of reach. Griffin added two free throws to finish out the scoring with four seconds on the clock.
Griffin came off the bench to add 13 points for WBU, which improves to 8-10 overall and 4-9 in conference play. Kakad led the team in rebounding with five and handed out four assists. Sanders dished out a game-high five assists and had two steals.
The Pioneers turned the ball of just 11 times, while forcing 15 by JBU. The Golden Eagles won the rebounding battle, 28-21, but shot just 45 percent from the field, compared to Wayland, which hit 52 percent of its shots.
WBU was also 13-of-14 from the charity stripe. John Brown, which was lead in scoring by Davaughn Jackson's 20 points, went to the line 19 times, converting 14.
The Pioneers have less than 24 hours to savor their victory, however, as Rogers State visits Hutcherson Center on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off for that game is 3 p.m.
