Box Score
GEORGETOWN – Wayland Baptist opened the second half with a 15-4 run as the Pioneers cruised to an 80-65 win over Southwestern University here Wednesday night.
"In the second half we got things going defensively, and that started to feed our offense," WBU coach Matt Garnett said. "We started to be more aggressive with our ball pressure, and that allowed us to get into a better rhythm on offense."
Markus Monroe scored a season-high 26 points for Wayland (7-1), which is off to its best start in five years. Kelly Lawson also notched a season-high with 17 points and, with a dozen rebounds, recorded his first double-double of the season. Barry Johnson added 15 points.
"Markus was able to get the scoring going," Garnett said of the senior guard who has scored 21 or more points in five of his seven games this season. "On offense we really shared the ball, and Markus was the beneficiary of a lot of that. We got the ball moving."
After Southwestern (3-6) scored the first five points of the game, Wayland knocked down the next 14 with Lawson and Johnson combining for 10 of those. The Pioneers went ahead by as many as nine points, but the Pirates came back to lead, 36-35, late in the first half.
"We always try to play possession-by-possession, and games like this are going to challenge if you're really doing that," Garnett said.
Wayland, which owned a 39-36 intermission advantage, began pulling away with a 15-4 run to open the second half, a spurt that featured a dunk and a traditional three-point play by Monroe.
Wayland put the game away when Plamen Hristof nailed a 3-pointer followed by a steal and dunk by Monroe, giving the Pioneers their largest lead, 17 points, at 80-63 with 1:25 to play.
"I liked our unselfishness down the stretch when we were trying to finish the game off," Garnett said.
The Pioneers shot 54 percent (30-of-56) from the field, including 2-of-7 from 3-point range, while making 55 percent (18-of-33) from the free-throw stripe.
Wayland committed just 11 turnovers.
"Southwestern is a team that doesn't beat themselves, and if you make a mistake, they make you pay," Garnett said. "They're not going to break down, so we had a challenge of doing things right, and I think, for the most part, we did that."
Southwestern, which lost its fourth in a row, got 26 points from guard Michael Cantu, who hit four of the Pirates' nine 3-pointers. Eriz Garza, who hit three bombs, was the only other Southwestern player in double figures with 15. Southwestern shot 39 percent (23-of-59) from the floor and was 10-of-15 (67 percent) from the foul stripe.
In addition to getting wins, Garnett wants to see "continual growth" from his team each time they take the floor.
"I think we're seeing that, even in these last two games (WBU defeated Dallas Christian on Monday, 95-84) when things haven't been great all of the time," the coach said. "We're seeing guys grow up mentally, and we're becoming more of a unit. When things get difficult, we're starting to work through that adversity together.
"We're also looking to be self-critical after games. We want to take that up a notch every game," Garnett added. "We talk about owning your shortcomings, which isn't an easy thing to do, but if you do that you can fix them. That's not always an easy process, but one that can lead to growth."
The Pioneers, who are ranked the equivalent of 34th in the NAIA and are off to their best start since the 2008-09 team won its first seven games, will go from an NCAA Division III opponent to an NCAA Division I foe as the Pioneers play an exhibition game at 3 p.m. Saturday in Denton against North Texas.
"We're excited about the challenge," Garnett said of facing the Mean Green (6-5), which defeated Sooner Athletic Conference member Oklahoma City University, 78-70, in a preseason exhibition before falling to the Big 12's University of Oklahoma, 95-83, in their second official game. "We're going to have to do a lot of things right.
"Our guys are competitors, and they'll be excited to go out there and play. It's going to take a really good effort, but we're looking forward to the opportunity."
