Box Score On a night when their offense sputtered getting out of the blocks, the Wayland Baptist Pioneers relied on their defense to take out the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets.
Wayland scored 14 unanswered points early in the second half, and
Eric Milam and
Travis Payton tallied 16 points apiece as the Pioneers recorded a 64-50 victory Thursday night at Hutcherson Center.
“The real positive was that in a game when we struggled offensively in many, many areas, our defense kept us in a position to be right there . . . to make a run,” Wayland coach
Matt Garnett said.
Both teams came out of the gate extremely slowly with the Pioneers (2-2) held without a field goal for 5½ minutes. The good news for Wayland was that Howard Payne, which was making its season debut, was almost just as cold, and the Pioneers only trailed 4-3 at the 14:36 mark.
Six minutes later, both teams finally reached double digits and the game was tied at 11-all.
“Howard Payne did a very good job of making us execute our offense,” Garnett said. “It was one of those you just had to grind it out.”
Wayland led just 23-22 at halftime, but then the Pioneers' offense finally started clicking.
After the Yellow Jackets tied it at 23, WBU scored the next 14 points to blow the game open.
Chance Billups nailed one of his two 3-pointers and Milam and
Reggie Fondren, who ended with 10 points, combined to score two buckets apiece during the game-changing run.
“We tried to establish our rhythm on offense by being more patient,” Garnett said. “We were trying to make everything off the first pass and we weren't being patient enough.”
After shooting just 38 percent in the first half, when HPU shot 35 percent, Wayland's shots finally started falling.
“Once we saw the ball go in the hole, mentally we got a bit of positive momentum,” Garnett said.
Howard Payne never got closer than eight points after Wayland's charge.
The Pioneers improved their shooting percentage to 55 percent (16-of-29) after intermission and ended up shooting 47 percent.
“Reggie really played active,” Garnett said of Fondren, who got eight rebounds (5 offensive) and three assists to go with his 10 points. “He kept possessions alive when we really needed to manufacture some baskets early.”
The coach also dished out praise on Payton, who had five boards, four assists and three steals. “Travis had a pretty balanced game and also was very active.”
Milam had five blocks and three steals to go with his 7-of-10 field goal shooting and 16 points. All 10 Pioneers who saw playing time scored.
Michael Thompson with 15 points and Brandon Gould with 14 were the only Yellow Jackets to score in double figures.
The rebounding battle ended in a 33-33 tie. The Pioneers wound up with 18 turnovers, eight blocks and 12 steals.
For Garnett, it all came back to defense.
“I was proud of our defense,” he said. “To hold them to 50 was very important tonight. We forced 23 turnovers, which was a real positive. We've been trying to be active defensively.”
The Pioneers hit the road for their next game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Dallas Baptist (1-1).
“They're very good, and this will be their homecoming,” Garnett pointed out. “They've already beaten Abilene Christian (79-72) in their gym and dropped a very close one at A&M-Commerce (91-87 in OT).”
The Pioneers' next home game is the back end of their first doubleheader of the season with the Flying Queens as WBU hosts Arlington Baptist at 6 and 8 p.m. Monday. The Pioneers then entertain St. Thomas-Houston at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“This is a big stretch of games for us,” Garnett said. “We hope to see continued improvement from our guys, getting better at the things we're struggling with and keep building toward conference.”
Pioneers vs Howard Payne Gallery
