Box Score Poor free throw shooting and too many turnovers combined to send the Wayland Baptist Pioneers into the Thanksgiving break on a sour note.
Wayland missed 13 of 22 free throws and committed 19 turnovers on Tuesday night at Hutcherson Center as the Pioneers fell to St. Thomas-Houston, 63-54.
The loss snapped Wayland's four-game win streak.
The Celts (5-1) played solid if not spectacular basketball in knocking off the Pioneers (4-3). Caleb Williams scored 14 points and Bryan Kaase and Nate McAnelly added 10 each for UST, which shot 44 percent (24-55) from the field, including 7-of-17 from 3-point range. The Celts hit 8-of-13 free throws and turned the ball over just 13 times. Travis Lampley tallied a dozen assists, three more than Wayland did as a team.
The Pioneers got 14 points and eight rebounds from
Reggie Fondren and 10 points and eight boards from
Eric Milam.
Tanner Hazelbaker added nine points. Wayland shot 39 percent (20-of-51) from the floor, hitting 5-of-15 from long range, and held a 41-31 rebounding edge.
WBU fell behind by 12 points, 28-16, with just over five minutes left before halftime, but managed to cut that deficit in half by intermission, 32-26.
The Pioneers took a 41-40 lead, their first since being up 7-6, on a bucket by
Byron Randle with 12:34 left in the game. A pair of 3-pointers by Hazelbaker sparked Wayland on an 8-0 run and gave the Pioneers their largest lead at 50-46 with 8:07 to go.
From there, though, it was all UST, which outscored Wayland 17-4 the rest of the way as the Pioneers alternated between missing shots and turning the ball over.
Wayland was the third straight Sooner Athletic Conference team UST faced. Playing at a tournament in San Antonio late last week, the Celts defeated Lubbock Christian, 70-54, and suffered their first loss to Rogers State, 63-62. UST previously defeated Rice University, 72-59.
The Pioneers leave early Thanksgiving Day for San Francisco where they will face NCAA Division I's Columbia University at 7 p.m. Friday. They follow that with two more road games against Huston-Tillotson in Austin on Sunday and against Southwestern University in Georgetown on Tuesday. The team's next home game is against Dallas Christian at 7 p.m. Nov. 30.
Pioneers vs St. Thomas-Houston Gallery
