Box Score SHAWNEE, Okla. – Would the Wayland Baptist Pioneers have liked to have won the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament championship on Saturday night?
It appeared they were going to, leading by 10 with five minutes left.
But Oklahoma Baptist went on a 13-2 game-ending run before surviving Wayland's last possession that undramatically ended in a turnover as the Bison stole a 70-69 victory over the No. 22 Pioneers, ungraciously depriving Wayland of its first-ever men's or women's conference tournament title.
"We had a myriad of things just kind of go the wrong direction at the end. Some things our guys could control and some things they couldn't," Wayland coach Matt Garnett said. "A lot of credit goes to OBU. They did a lot of good things at the end."
Opportunistic OBU (19-15) – feeding off a loud home crowd in the Noble Complex – secured the SAC's automatic bid to the NAIA National Championships, extending their streak of appearances to 15 straight while leaving Wayland to wait until Wednesday to learn if it will be awarded an at-large bid to Kansas City for the first time since 2008.
Understandably, Garnett said the loss was hard to swallow, mostly since it appeared the Pioneers would be finally taking a conference championship trophy back to Plainview.
"I told the team after the game that if you're playing in a championship game, one team is going to be happy and one is going to disappointed. We were so very close there at the end to being on the right side of that, and we just weren't," Garnett said. "That's difficult."
The Pioneers hadn't played for a SAC tourney title since 2004, when they lost to OBU, 66-61. They were well on their way to getting the job done, up 67-57 after
Markus Monroe nailed a 3-pointer with just more than five minutes left.
"You never relax, and you never feel comfortable," Garnett said. "I really think our guys are very good in that situation."
Tonight, though, it didn't work out that way.
The Bison, desperate to win with an at-large bid to nationals likely not in their future, scored the next 13 points to take a three-point lead on a pair of free throws by Hayden Darst with 11 seconds left.
Instead of letting Wayland launch a game-tying 3-pointer, the Bison, with a foul to give before putting the Pioneers in the bonus, fouled twice before putting Monroe on the line for a one-and-one. With seven seconds left, Monroe hit them both, making it a one-point game.
Wayland fouled on the in-bounds play and things worked out after OBU's Eric Stubbs missed the first of his one-and-one. The Pioneers'
Plamen Hristov grabbed the rebound and after racing past midcourt Wayland called timeout with 3.5 seconds showing.
Wayland got the ball to Monroe, the first-team all-conference senior and Wayland's top scorer with 27 points, but he lost the ball as he tried to make a move along the sideline, and it rolled out of bounds at the end of the Pioneers' bench with one second left. After OB ran off that final second, the Bison faithful flooded the court at the Noble Complex.
"We wanted to get the ball in Markus' hands. That's where you want the ball," Garnett said of the final set-up. "He made an attacking move, and the ball bounced out of bounds. He made those plays the other night. It just took a bad break there.
"It's a frustrating situation," the coach added. "You do so many good things to get the lead and to have things go against you like they did, it's definitely frustrating."
Besides Monroe's 27, the only other Pioneer in double figures was
Royal Crouch, who ended with 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds as Wayland held a 47-37 edge on the boards. Both Monroe and Crouch were named to the All-SAC Tournament team, joined there by
Barry Johnson who had nine points.
Travis Payton added eight,
Bunja Yaboe four,
Juhreece Thompson three and
Sasha Ovcharenko two.
The Bison had four score in double figures, led by Darst with 20 points. Cale Jackson added 16, Aaron Abram 15 and Eric Stubbs 10. OBU committed just five turnovers, compared to Wayland's 15.
Both teams shot 38 percent from the field, with Wayland hitting six 3s and OBU five, and both teams hit 17 free throws, Wayland on 22 tries and OBU on 25.
Afterwards, Garnett kept things in perspective.
"I know our guys are extremely disappointed to come out on the short side of a championship game, but I'm very proud of their performance tonight and in this tournament," he said.
So, yes, the Pioneers would have liked to have won the SAC Tournament title. But they know there is more basketball to be played.
"As we try to get prepared for what we hope will be a trip to nationals, our guys will be able to see the big picture again and realize we'll see another day.
"I think they represented our program and our school in a great way. Things don't always go your way and life's not always fair, but you try to learn from it. I thought they handled it very well and with a lot of class."
"We're excited to have more season left."
All-SAC Tournament
MVP-Hayden Darst, OBU
Hustle Award: Cale Jackson, OBU
Tyler Reynolds, USAO
Aaron, Abram, OBU
Royal Crouch, WBU
Barry Johnson, WBU
Markus Monroe, WBU
