Box Score
ABILENE – The Wayland Baptist men's basketball team met Dallas Christian on Monday night for the first of three road games the Pioneers will play this week. Riding senior Barry Johnson's 35 points, the Pioneers defeated the Crusaders, 95-84, in McMurry University's Kimbrell Arena.
The Pioneers (6-1) got off to a quick start, opening the game with an 11-0 run, but saw their lead diminish as the Crusaders (1-11) scored eight unanswered points to cut the lead to three. Dallas Christian continued to battle throughout the first half, even when WBU went up by as many as 12 points, and went into halftime down, 43-36.
Three-and-a-half minutes into the second half, the Crusaders' persistence finally paid off as they took their first lead of the game when a 3-pointer by Rashad Harris put DCC up, 49-47.
The Pioneers answered, however, as Bunja Yaboe laid the ball in the basket to tie the game up before Maurice Redmond regained the lead for WBU with a layup and a free throw to score three the hard way. Wayland's offensive surge continued over the next six minutes as the Pioneers went on a 20-4 run.
With 10 minutes left, Dallas Christian began to chip away at WBU's 16-point lead. With just over two minutes to go, a free throw by DCC's Joshua Harris cut the margin to seven points, but WBU sharp-shooter Sasha Ovcharenko quickly answered with a 3-pointer to give Wayland a 90-80 lead. From there, the Pioneers did not look back, securing a hard-fought, 95-84 win.
"Charles (Williams) has done a great job of coaching at Dallas Christian," WBU head coach Matt Garnett said of his counterpart. "They've got some good-looking kids that can really play."
Garnett and the Pioneers, who picked up votes in the latest Top 25 poll, have experienced some early-season success, and although his squad doesn't feel as if they played their best game, they were happy to come away with a win.
"Tonight just goes to show you that you can never become arrogant and celebrate any victory too much," the coach said. "Tonight wasn't our best effort, but we were able to find a way to win."
Wayland's victory was due in large part to Barry Johnson, the game's leading scorer with 35 points.
"Barry is the ultimate competitor," Garnett said of the senior. "He's fearless, and when things get tough he's not afraid to take big shots. Every game he plays he plays like it's the national championship. He had a huge night for us tonight when we needed scoring."
Garnett also was quick to praise Yaboe, Redmond and Royal Crouch.
"Bunja and Maurice were thrown into situations in a tight game and they both played very well," he said. "They had a great week of practice and I couldn't be more proud of those two.
"Royal also did a really good job on the boards tonight. He's not a guy that gets a lot of attention, but he came up big for us."
The Pioneers will travel to Georgetown on Tuesday morning to begin preparing for their Wednesday game against Southwestern University, a team Garnett said will be tough.
"We have a big week ahead of us. We play a very good Southwestern team that will be very good at home," Garnett said. "We'll have to make some decisions and grow from tonight's game. We had some good moments tonight, and the bad ones we can very easily fix if we get our minds right.
"We'll get better, starting with the coaching staff. We're going to do a better job as a staff to get them ready to play. We're excited to get to play on Wednesday. We've had so few games lately and it's good for us to have a quick turnaround.
"We'll respond to the tough times we had tonight and build on the good things we did. I think our guys are going to handle that well."
Wayland plays Southwestern at 7 p.m. Wednesday then travels to the Metroplex to take on North Texas in an exhibition at 3 p.m. Saturday.
