Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY – Last week, the Wayland Baptist Pioneers put on a show against two top-25 teams, impressing voters enough to earn a No. 11 ranking in the NAIA Top-25 Poll. On Thursday, however, Mid-America Christian was the one putting on the show, handing Wayland an 83-64 Sooner Athletic Conference loss in the Gaulk Activity Center.
"First of all, I have to give a ton of credit to Mid-America and Coach (Willie) Holley," WBU head coach
Matt Garnett said. "Coach Holley really had them ready to play, and they played with great sense of urgency. I was impressed with the way their ball club competed tonight. They're a very good team."
Mid-America Christian (11-6, 5-2 SAC) had five players score in double figures, led by Semar Farris, a first team All-Sooner Athletic Conference and second-team NAIA All-American. Farris had two steals, a 3-pointer and an assist in the first minute and 10 seconds of the game, setting the tone and putting Wayland (14-2, 3-2) in an early, 8-0 hole.
Ta'Quan McDew, who was named NAIA Player of the Week on Tuesday, got the Pioneers going with a 3, and
Royal Crouch followed with a jumper to cut the Evangels' lead to three, 8-5. MACU went on an 11-4 run over the next four minutes, however, to regain another comfortable cushion.
Down nine points six minutes into the game, the Pioneers looked as if they started to find a groove and return to their normal selves again, ripping off a 13-0 run to earn its only lead of the night.
Robert Waters started the run with a 3, followed by two free throws from
Kendall Durant.
Jordon Johnson turned three MACU turnovers into five points, and Waters added two more after
Maurice Redmond kept a play going with an offensive rebound to put the Pioneers up, 24-19, with 6-1/2 minutes left in the first half.
"There was one stretch in first half that I thought we finally settled down and started doing things right defensively and took control of things," Garnett recounted. "We were really committed to doing things as a team on both ends of the court (during that run)."
Wayland's lead was short-lived, however, as the Evangels stormed back to go into halftime with a 37-28 lead. It marked just the third time WBU trailed going into the break. West Texas A&M and Southwestern Assemblies of God both owned halftime leads, but the Pioneers ended up winning both of those games.
The Pioneers, who are used to gaining ground or pulling away from opponents with big runs, never could get anything going in the second half. Wayland shot just 39 percent from the field (compared to a 51.7 percent season average), and was an abysmal 9-of-23 from the charity stripe and 3-of-14 from 3-point range.
Garnett credited Wayland's shooting woes to the miscues his squad had on defense.
"The way we're built as a team, when we struggle on defense it makes us anxious and turns us into guys that are rushing, and the result is usually turnovers and missed shots," he explained. "Mid-America is a very good offensive team and we knew that it would be difficult to slow them down, so when we couldn't get a handle on them on defense that led to some difficult moments for us on offense."
Waters led WBU in scoring with 11 points, while
Bunja Yaboe and Durant both had 10. Farris led all scorers with 18 points and seven assists, and three other Evangels, Brock Hunter (13), Chris Runnels (13) and Reggie Davis (12), all outscored Wayland's top-five scorers.
Instead of taking on another SAC school in the Oklahoma City area, the Pioneers returned home early Friday morning to prepare for Saturday's home game against University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. Wayland will have its hands full in a quick turnaround with the Drovers (3-9, 2-3), who proved they are not to be taken lightly after picking up a 74-70 win over (RV) St. Gregory's, which was ranked in the top-five to start the season.
"I told the guys after the game that this is where we find out who we are as a team," Garnett said. "We have a long drive home after a tough road loss and have a tough USAO team waiting for us.
"Tonight was a difficult night for us, in part because we tried to handle adversity. We have to come to the realization that (adversity) is coming every night, and we have to learn to embrace that adversity and defeat it.
"This is a great group of young men that I believe want to play good basketball. I take full responsibility for us not being at the level we should have been. I believe in these guys and I think they'll be ready to respond to a difficult game on Saturday."
