Box Score ABILENE – After handing McMurry a convincing 30-point win at home on Nov. 24, Wayland had its hands full at Kimbrell Arena on Saturday night. The War Hawks battled the Pioneers all night, but WBU held off McMurry to win, 92-79.
"I have to give a lot of credit to McMurry and Coach (Clif) Carroll," head coach
Matt Garnett said. "Clif did a fabulous job with his guys and made us have to really do things right. Our guys stayed the course, though, even when we were a little frustrated with ourselves and couldn't get things going the way we wanted to. We played a nice stretch of basketball that last ten minutes to finally create a little separation."
The Pioneers (12-1) and War Hawks traded blows throughout the game exchanging leads eight times and seeing eight ties in 40 minutes of play. Wayland scored the first five points of the game, but McMurry (3-7) scored the next seven. Three pointers dominated the next three possessions, with each shot swinging the lead in favor of its taker.
Kendall Durant gave WBU an 8-7 lead before Logan LeDane answered on McMurry's end, but
Robert Waters followed suit to put Wayland ahead once more, 11-10.
Ta'Quan McDew picked up a steal on the defensive end that led to a Durant jumper and after another defensive stop
Bunja Yaboe made a free throw to give the Pioneers a little breathing room.
The cushion was short-lived however, as LeDane made his second of four three pointers to bring the War Hawks back within a point.
McMurry never let WBU's lead extend to more than three points, and with seven and a half minutes remaining in the first half, Alex Lewis gave the War Hawks a 22-21 lead with a layup. The War Hawks forced a turnover on the defensive end and converted on their next two possessions to jump out to a five-point lead.
The War Hawks clung to the lead for three minutes, but
Robert Waters knocked down a three to give Wayland a 33-32 lead. On the next possession, LeDane drew a foul and tied the game on the first free throw, but missed out on giving McMurry the lead on the second. Durant followed by sinking two from the charity stripe to give the Pioneers the lead for good for the remainder of the half.
A late three pointer cut the Pioneers lead to just two, 43-41, going into halftime, but after a brutal first 20 minutes, Wayland was glad to have it.
For most teams going into halftime with only a two-point lead after beating the same team by 30 would have been tough to deal with, but the Pioneers responded to McMurry's persistence and took the second half one possession at a time to finally pull away from the War Hawks.
"When you're trying to take control of a game it's easy to try and pull away on the offensive end, but you have to do it with defense," Garnett said. "Our guys wanted to play well coming out of halftime, and after a while we settled into what we normally do on the defensive end and strung together a few stops. Once we executed better on defense we were able to force them to do things that were a little more difficult for them."
Five minutes into the second half, McMurry took a 52-51 lead, its first in eight and a half minutes, but
Jacob Lancaster made his only basket of the game count, tying the game 30 seconds later and setting up
Maurice Redmond who hit a jumper to swing the lead in favor of the Pioneers once more.
After McMurry tied the game two more times, the defensive stops started coming for the Pioneers. The War Hawks tied the game, 63 all, with 9:35 left in the game, but over the next three and a half minutes, the Pioneers got seven consecutive stops on defense and forced two turnovers, starting a 12-0 run that gave WBU a 75-63 lead with six minutes remaining.
"With about 10 minutes left in the game, we were able to finally string together a few stops," Garnett said. "We got to their shooters and contested their shots more efficiently which allowed us to get those stops."
Wayland outscored McMurry 29-16 in the final ten minutes of the game to preserve a 92-79 win, its 12th of the year.
Garnett kept alluding to defense as Wayland's key to success, but he also pointed out that Durant, whose season didn't start until after the fall semester, had a break out game after a great week of practice.
"Kendall's performance tonight was a direct result of his last six or seven practices," he said. "The past week he was really committed to being at game speed in every drill. It's great to see a guy play well knowing that it's a direct result of the work he put in."
Durant was 6-of-9 from the field and 10-of-11 from the free throw line, totaling 23 points. The senior also had five rebounds and two assists.
Waters led all scorers with 27 points, a season high, while McDew added 14 and Crouch scored 11. With nine points and nine rebounds, Yaboe was a basket and a rebound away from a double-double. As a team, the Pioneers shot 50-percent from the field and from three.
With the conclusion of Saturday's game comes the beginning of a regular Sooner Athletic Conference schedule, starting with a top-25 showdown against No. 18 Texas Wesleyan (12-0, 2-0) at 8 p.m. Thursday in Hutcherson Center.
"Even though we've played two conference games, our schedule from November to January gets us ready for the challenges of the SAC schedule," Garnett said. "We've seen a lot of different things and played some tough games on the road that have prepared us.
"This team has put in a lot of hard work, but now we have to bring that work to the table every Thursday and Saturday and be ready for the night in and night out battle that the SAC schedule is."
