Pioneers pull away from Sul Ross St., 85-64

Box Score Playing for the third time in four days, Wayland Baptist was a bit off its usual torrid pace. But the 12^th-ranked still had no problem dispatching Sul Ross State on Monday night in Hutcherson Center, 85-64.
 
"Considering it was our third game in four days, I thought our guys did a really good job," Wayland coach Ty Harrelson said after his team's final tune-up before the start of conference play. "It's a win, and we're 6-1 going into conference. I'm really excited and happy for our team."
 
Wayland (6-1) never trailed after jumping out to an 11-2 lead. The Lobos (0-2) pulled to within one, 22-21, late in the first half but the Pioneers went on a 13-2 run to re-establish control. Wayland was up by 10 at the half, 35-25.
 
"(Sul Ross St.) Coach (Clif) Carroll does a really good job. I thought they slowed the game down and threw a couple of different defensive looks at us that we hadn't seen this season," Harrelson said. "That made the guys have to step up and play."

SRSU got within seven, 42-35, five minutes into the second half when a 3-pointer by Waters jump-started another Wayland push, this one 12-2, that put the Pioneers up 54-37.
 
"We did a good job focusing on getting stops defensively," Harrelson said.
 
Wayland grew its lead to as many as 27 points, 75-48, with just under six minutes to go.
 
Harrelson credited Ruben Lopez, who had a pair of 3-pointers toward his eight points, for giving the Pioneers a lift.
 
"I thought when Ruben came in he really made an impact. We were able to push it out to a 20-point game."
 
Besides Waters' 21 points, seven assists, five steals and zero turnovers, Jordon Johnson got 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds while Marquous Barnes added a season-high 11 points.
 
"Rob had another fantastic game," Harrelson said. "He's just really tough. He saw a lot of double-teams tonight and still managed to shoot 50 percent, and with that type of pressure was still able to get the ball where it needed to go without turning it over.

"What always stands out to me about Robert is as good as he is on offense, he's just as tough on defense. He never takes a play off."
Harrelson also praised Barnes, who went 5-of-6 from the field and got five boards.

"He only played half the game, so he was very efficient," the coach said.

SRSU, which got just 17 points from its five starters, was led by Rocky Feliciano and Xavier Webb with 14 each and Caleb Thomasson with 10.
 
After shooting just 32 percent (12-of-37) in the first half, Wayland shot 56 percent (18-of-32) in the second and 43.5 percent for the game. The Pioneers shot that same percentage from 3-point range where they were 10-of-23, with Waters going 4-for-6. The Pioneers hit 15-of-20 free throws (75 percent).
 
Wayland ended with 23 turnovers while Sul Ross, which shot 37 percent from the field overall, had 32.
 
"We shot ball well from the 3-point line again, but we're still turning the ball over too much," Harrelson said.

The Pioneers are off until Dec. 3 when they travel to Siloam Springs, Ark., for their Sooner Athletic Conference debut against John Brown University (5-3), which earned Top 25 votes in the NAIA preseason poll.
 
Harrelson likes where the Pioneers stand going into conference.
 
"(No. 25) Our Lady of the Lake was a tough loss for us, but we're where we were hoping to be," he said. "We still definitely have things we can do better, but it's early in the season.
 
"I think our guys will be focused when it's time to play at John Brown and two days later at Bacone. John Brown will be very tough for our first (SAC) game."