Box Score WAXAHACHIE – It's a safe bet the Southwestern Assembly of God Lions won't be too upset if they don't run into the Wayland Baptist Pioneers at the upcoming Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.
Wayland knocked off No. 4 SAGU for the second time this season, winning here Saturday afternoon in overtime, 98-91. It was the Lions' first home loss of the season after 13 victories and their second loss to the Pioneers, also falling 89-82 in Plainview on Jan. 23.
"This was quite a battle. It's good to come out on the winning end of one of those," said Wayland coach
Matt Garnett, his team the victim of several close losses this season. "I felt our guys went to another level in both mental and physical toughness and really staying together. They fought through a really tough game on the road against a very good team."
The Pioneers (19-9, 10-8 SAC) got a stellar performance from senior point guard
Travis Payton, who scored a career-high 24 points plus collected nine rebounds and nine assists.
"We've talked about our seniors setting a tone down the stretch of their careers, and today Travis played like a senior that had that refuse-to-lose type of attitude," Garnett said. "He made big play after big play, and just showed tremendous leadership."
Another senior,
Juhreece Thompson, also came up big, matching his season-best with 20 points, while
Royal Crouch got 18,
Markus Monroe 17 and
Barry Johnson 14. Like Payton, Thompson and Monroe pulled down nine rebounds each as the Pioneers dominated the boards, 49-29.
Again, Garnett lauded his seniors – Payton, Thompson, Monroe and Johnson.
"They all made big plays," the coach said. "They defended some really talented guards (for SAGU)."
The game was tied at 40 at halftime before Wayland fell behind by as many as nine points in the second half. The determined Pioneers, though, battled back and were up by six, 80-74, with 2½ minutes left.
"You saw that determination and toughness come out, and we were able to make a few plays and scratch and claw our way back into it," Garnett said. "There were a lot of big plays made by both teams down the stretch."
The Lions (23-4, 15-3) also fought back, going on a 10-4 run to end regulation, which ended with an errant pass by Wayland's Crouch with 22 seconds left before Crouch redeemed himself by drawing a charge on a SAGU layup along the baseline as time expired.
Garnett was proud of Crouch for overcoming his late-game miscue by making a key defensive play.
"You try to teach kids to play in the moment and have a next-play mentality, that you can't dwell," he said. "Royal was put to the test right there and made such a big play."
Payton put in one of the biggest buckets of overtime when he nailed a 3-pointer that put Wayland ahead for good, 90-87, with 1:45 left. On the next possession, Payton assisted Crouch on a layup that gave the Pioneers a five-point lead.
After struggling at times with free throws, Wayland sealed it at the foul line where Monroe,
Sasha Ovcharenko and Payton combined to go 6-for-6 in the final 38 seconds. Ovcharenko's free throws accounted for two of only five points from WBU non-starters;
Plamen Hristov also got two and
Bunja Yaboe one.
"Sasha came off bench and hit those free throws cold. Only winners can do that," Garnett said.
Yaboe, too, played crucial minutes after Thompson fouled out early in the five-minute overtime.
"It was a complete team effort," Garnett said. "That's the only way you're going to have a chance to beat those guys, especially in their gym."
Payton's two-dozen points were six more than his previous season high. His career high before Saturday was 23 points last season against Oklahoma Baptist.
The Pioneers, who were coming off a hard-to-swallow 111-102 loss to Northwood on Thursday, shot 52 percent (33-of-64) from the field, but struggled from 3-point range (3-of-15, 20 percent). They made 29-of-39 free throws (74 percent).
"You got a sense they were dialed in today," Garnett said of his team. "We talk about being stubborn and not giving in, and today I had a group that was real dialed in and focused."
Dominique Rambo and Tyler Guidry led the Lions with 25 and 23 points, respectively. SAGU finished 29-of-69 (42 percent) from the field, 8-of-35 (23 percent) from distance and 25-of-31 (81 percent) from the foul line.
Wayland turned the ball over 21 times, seven more than SAGU, but made up for that by its dominance on the boards.
The Pioneers wrap up the regular season with a pair of home games next week against Science and Arts of Oklahoma (12-13, 9-9), a 103-97 winner over Southwestern Christian on Saturday, at 8 p.m. Thursday and against Texas Wesleyan (15-12, 8-9) at 3 p.m. Saturday. Wayland will be looking to avenge road losses to both the Rams (75-71) and Drovers (82-81, OT) as the Pioneers prepare for the post-season.
"We have two very talented teams coming in," Garnett said. "USAO is going to be a handful on Thursday. They are very talented and have good athleticism."
All 11 SAC teams will participate in the conference tournament, to be held March 5-8 in Shawnee, Okla.
"We've talked about trying to play our best basketball down the stretch, and we're going to have to," Garnett said. "The toughness I saw in our guys today…in order for us to have success on Thursday, we're going to have to go there Monday. It's a consistency and a mentality, and we have to dial into that Monday in order to get ready for this week's games."
