Box Score Matt Garnett called the John Brown Golden Eagles "dangerous." Indeed they were on Saturday afternoon, but only after the Wayland Baptist Pioneers had another Sooner Athletic Conference win well in hand.
Royal Crouch poured in 26 points and
Kendall Durant added 19, and 14
th-ranked Wayland used a suffocating defense to stifle John Brown's deadly shooters and avenge the Pioneers' only loss in 17 home games last season, 82-64.
"For good stretches of the game our activity on defense made it difficult on those guys," Garnett said. "We were able to get them to miss, and we forced 20 turnovers. They can shoot the ball, so you have to find a way to make them miss shots because they shoot it so well from so many spots."
Wayland (16-2, 5-2 SAC) came out strong in the first half, putting up 14 unanswered points to extend a 17-15 lead to 16, 31-15. Crouch scored half of those 14 points, while
Morris Mitchell came off the bench for two big buckets.
"For the last two weeks Morris has been practicing very well, and I've watched him really start to make an impact on this team with his energy and activity," Garnett said. "I told him there's going to be an opportunity where we're going to have to have you ready to play, and I couldn't be more proud of what he did today. He's a very good player, but the beauty of what he did today was with his activity and energy. It changed the game for us in that first half."
The Pioneers took a comfortable 42-24 advantage into halftime before slowly building a 30-point spread, 65-35, with just over 11 minutes left.
"I thought the guys executed the game plan well," Garnett said. "They were focused and trusted each other within that."
In the final minutes the Golden Eagles (12-9, 4-4) got aggressive and finally found their shooting touch, trimming the margin to 15 with 3½ minutes to go, but the Pioneers held them off the rest of the way and effectively snapped a three-game regular-season losing skid against the only SAC team to sweep them last season.
Wayland shot 44 percent (30-of-68) from the field, with Durant hitting 70 percent (7-of-10), and also made 16-of-21 free throws (76 percent). The Pioneers held a 44-34 edge on the boards, with
Bunja Yaboe pulling down nine rebounds.
Garnett pointed to the Pioneers giving up just seven offensive boards.
"I thought that was really critical," he said. "We rebounded the first miss well."
Three Golden Eagles scored in double figures, led by Max Hopfgartner's 21.
Garnett – whose Pioneers committed a dozen turnovers, eight fewer than JBU – complimented both Crouch and Durant, who combined for 45 points.
"Our last two practices Kendall has had really good workouts. He's been really focused on what he needed to do well to help us. It's always great to see a guy that his performance is directly related to his week of practice. I was real pleased with his performance on both sides of the basketball."
Of Crouch, whose 26 points were five off his season-high, the coach said, "When Royal is getting offensive rebounds and running his lane he can hurt you in a lot of ways. He stayed on the attack tonight without the ball in his hands, which is really important."
Four other Pioneers – Mitchell and
Robert Waters with eight each and Yaboe and
Jordon Johnson with seven apiece – also contributed significant points.
"Our depth showed," Garnett said. "Jordon and Ta'Quan (McDew) impacted the game defensively. Without have a big game on offense, I thought Ta'Quan he did a very good job on their key guys."
Because of a postponed game on Thursday due to wintry weather, the Pioneers are back in action Monday against St. Gregory's. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. against the defending national semifinalist Cavaliers (8-6, 4-2), who were ranked sixth to open the season.
"You're always pleased when you can find a way to win in this conference, but (Sunday) our guys will be ready to focus in on St. Gregory's," Garnett said. "We know the challenge. They have four players (including first-team all-American senior guard Marty Wilkerson) back from an NAIA Final Four team, and they were picked to win our league. We have great respect for the quality opponent that they are, and we expect our guys to be really focused and ready to compete on Monday night.
"We're looking forward to having an opportunity to play in a big game. We take it day by day, and our focus is now on St. Gregory's."
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