Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. --- If they could take away the first four minutes of Thursday night's Sooner Athletic Conference basketball game against Oklahoma City University, the Wayland Baptist men might have their first conference win of the season. Instead, the Pioneers have to settle for a 71-62 loss at the hands of the Stars.
OCU scored the first 11 points of the game against the Pioneers to take control early. Just like their female counterparts in the opening game of the doubleheader, the WBU men had a miserable time shooting the ball in the first half, hitting just seven of 24 from the field. Things weren't much better at the free throw line. Wayland converted only five of their 11 chances at the line in the opening 20 minutes.
Wayland head coach Robert Davenport said that his team simply wasn't ready. "I guess that's my fault. With half the guys on this team new to the league, they just don't realize how good these other teams are. They'll jump on you in a hurry if you give them a chance, and that's just what happened tonight."
Davenport added that his team played much better in the second period. "If we had played in the first half like we did in the second, we would have won this game. We won the second period, 41-36, we won the rebounding battle (39-29), and we outscored them in the paint (34-20). Our problems were with turnovers and at the free throw line."
The Pioneers had two more turnovers than did the Stars. Those 19 miscues resulted in 18 OCU points. WBU converted the 17 Star turnovers into 13 points. What ultimately might have decided the game, however, were the chances at the charity stripe. Oklahoma City had 38 attempts from the line, 25 in the second half. They made good on 26 of the 38. WBU, on the other hand, had just 22 free opportunities, 11 in each half, and they hit just 50 percent of those.
"That's a pretty big discrepancy. I'm not saying that a lot of those calls weren't earned, though," Davenport added. "We were doing a lot of hacking and grabbing out there rather than moving our feet."
Desmaan Robinson had the best game of his short WBU career on Thursday. The 6'9 junior from Portland, Ore. came off the bench to record his first double-double of the year with a game-high 17 points and 14 rebounds.
Another bench player, Desmond Jones, was the only other Pioneer to hit the double figure mark in scoring. The junior from Phoenix, Ariz. contributed a career-high 12 points. It was two free throws by Jones, followed by his lay-up on the next WBU possession that cut the deficit to single digits with 4:21 left in the game. Jones later hit his second three-pointer of the contest to make it a seven-point margin with 1:42 remaining, but that was as close as the Pioneers could get.
The Stars, 8-1 overall and 2-0 in league action, had four players that scored in double digits, led by Johnny Stephene with 16. Nate Flowers and Dee Broby had 15 each.
The Pioneers now have an overall mark of 5-3 and are 0-3 in SAC play. They take on Mid-America Christian University on Saturday at 3 pm. MACU lost to Lubbock Christian 68-57 on Thursday.
