Box Score In a game of big and frequent scoring runs, it was Oklahoma Baptist that ended up with the first, last and most telling ones as the Bison spoiled Wayland Baptist's Sooner Athletic Conference championship dreams by taking down the 14
th-ranked Pioneers on Thursday night in Hutcherson Center, 85-79.
"We just had had a breakdown for about a 3-minute stretch where we got away from who we are, and that falls on me," Wayland coach
Matt Garnett said. "I'll fix it."
Winners of two straight after dropping five in a row, each by five points or less, once eighth-ranked OBU (23-5, 12-5 SAC) scored the first 13 points of the game and then went on a major 17-0 run in the second half. In between, the Pioneers (23-5, 12-5) – playing without injured leading scorer
Royal Crouch – outscored the Bison by a 20-2 count late in the first half and assumed as much as a 10-point advantage.
In the end, though, after Wayland fought its way back in the game by scoring nine unanswered and pulling to within 81-79 on a 3-pointer by
Ta'Quan McDew with 21 seconds left, four free throws by the Bison ultimately decided it. Ty Allen made a pair of foul shots for OBU with 14 seconds showing and, after McDew misfired on a 3, OBU's DJ Hervy nailed a couple of foul shots with four ticks left to officially snap Wayland's seven-game win streak, stretching back to the last time OBU beat the Pioneers, 84-83.
"The time of the loss is what hurts most. We wanted a chance to play for the conference championship on Saturday (against Mid-America Christian), no doubt about that," Garnett said.
For a time Thursday it appeared the Pioneers might have a chance to win the SAC title outright, as No. 12 MACU was trailing on the road to Texas Wesleyan by 17 points. But the Evangels rallied to win, 81-76, and wrap up the regular-season conference crown prior to Saturday's 3 p.m. tip-off in the Hutch.
Like the Evangels in Fort Worth against Wesleyan, the Pioneers also found themselves in a big hole against OBU. The Bison came out and hit three 3-pointers among their first four field goals and took a 13-0 lead. It took cold-shooting Wayland three minutes to get on the board when
Kendall Durant drained a 3.
The Pioneers pulled to within 20-18 then saw OBU pull away again, this time by nine, 30-21. But Wayland came roaring back this time, outscoring the Bison, 20-2. A 3-pointer by
Robert Waters gave the Pioneers their first lead of the game, 34-32, with 4:14 left in the first half, and Wayland stretched it to 41-31.
The Bison, though, answered with seven straight points, closing Wayland's lead to 43-39 at intermission.
The Pioneers were up 60-50 with just over 12 minutes to go in the game when the Bison made a major push, recording 17 unanswered points during a stretch when Wayland missed a handful of shots and made numerous turnovers. When it was over OBU held a 74-64 lead.
"We've been a team that plays each possession and doesn't get caught up in the highs and lows of a game, and for a stretch there we just let things become bigger than they were," Garnett said.
The Pioneers were down nine, 81-70, with just 1:52 when they made one final surge.
Durant scored then
Robert Waters and
Jordon Johnson got back-to-back steals that they turned into layups. McDew's 3-pointer with 21 seconds left made it anyone's game.
"When we got the right combination of players back in, they responded to give ourselves one more chance at it," Garnett said. "I was incredibly proud of what we saw at the end. That's this team. They were just on the short end of it tonight."
Waters led Wayland with 20 points, his most since the eighth game of the season, along with seven assists. Johnson scored a season-best 16 to go with a team-high eight rebounds, while
Bunja Yaboe and Durant each put in 12 and McDew nine.
Johnson started in place of Crouch, Wayland's top scorer who missed the injury with a hip injury he suffered two days earlier in practice. Crouch tested the hip during pregame warmups, but determined it did not feel well enough to play.
"I hated it for Royal's sake because I know how much it means to him and how much he cares," Garnett said. "But we've lived all year with the 'next-man-up' mentality.
"The first 30 minutes and the last 3 or 4 (minutes), our guys responded and I felt like they were going to find a way to get it done. I'm proud of that, for how they responded without Royal."
Junior guard Byron Miller had a monster night for the Bison with 29 points and 18 rebounds, drilling four of OBU's nine 3s. Allen was right behind him with 26 points, while Chandler Rickey got 14.
Both teams shot well from the field (OBU 52 percent, WBU 45 percent), but the Pioneers struggled at the free-throw line, making just 7-of-16 compared to the Bison's 14-of-16.
While disappointed with the loss, Garnett said there's a lot of basketball left to be played.
"We have a really good season going and one that needs to be finished on a strong note going into the conference tournament. We have so much to play for here Saturday (against MACU), and this group has shown they respond well following losses. When you only have five, every one of them is hard, but they've responded after each one, and I expect nothing less this time. This team is going to be very determined to play against MACU."
The Pioneers will be looking to avenge an 83-64 loss to the Evangels suffered Jan. 15 in Oklahoma City.
"We'll do what we do every Friday, which is focus hard on Saturday's opponent. That's the one thing that doesn't change. Once you wake up Friday morning it doesn't matter if you won (Thursday) or not.
"This group will be very ready to play Saturday."
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