Box Score
It's not often that the wife of a coach on the opposing team is happy – OK, maybe not happy but at least content – when her husband's club loses.
This wasn't just any ol' game, though.
On Thursday night in Hutcherson Center, Wayland Baptist senior
Maurice Redmond drained a clutch 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds left before Texas Wesleyan missed a layup at the buzzer to give the Pioneers a thrilling, come-from-behind 79-77 Sooner Athletic Conference victory over the 12
th-ranked Rams.
"I thought that was a fantastic college basketball game," Wayland coach
Ty Harrelson said. "Both teams battled."
So why was Anna Garnett, wife of Texas Wesleyan associate head coach Matt Garnett, smiling after Redmond made the shot – after an assist by
Ruben Lopez – that helped bring his team back from an 18-point deficit against her husband's team? Because Matt is the former head coach for the Pioneers who recruited Redmond and Lopez to Wayland, and Anna couldn't help but feel good for them for making such a big play.
"I stood up and cheered a little bit," Anna, a former WBU cheerleader, admitted.
She told Redmond as much afterwards, and Matt also voiced how proud he was of his former player.
"If you have to get beat, it's good to get beat by somebody like that," Matt Garnett said.
When it was all over, Redmond was beaming.
"It was good to beat Coach 'G'," he said. "He told me he was proud of me and that his family was cheering for me. He said he was proud of the player that I turned out to be."
The win gave Wayland (13-6, 5-2 SAC) a share of the conference lead with the Rams (15-3, 5-2) and the Pioneers' opponent on Saturday, No. 20 Southwestern Assemblies of God (15-4, 5-2). Tip-off for that game is 3 p.m. in the Hutch.
Not only did Redmond and Lopez play for Garnett during his four-year coaching tenure at Wayland, Garnett and Harrelson – both standout guards – were teammates, as well as roommates, during their time at WBU in the early 2000s.
"Matt's a good friend of mine. I got to spend some time with him (Wednesday); it was good to catch up with him," Harrelson said. "We really loved playing together and loved playing for Wayland. It's something we're very proud of and both still have pride in this program.
"It wasn't fun to coach against him but, that's part of this profession."
Another part of college basketball is thrilling games like Thursday's.
Texas Wesleyan stormed out to an 18-point, 26-8 lead in the game's first 9½ minutes.
"Wesleyan came out right away and basically punched us in the mouth," Harrelson said. "It was just a really bad start. Wesleyan played good defense, we threw a couple of (balls) away in transition, we got some charging calls…
"But it's a long game. Once we settled in I felt we would be OK."
WBU trailed by 18 on three occasions, the last time at 30-12. There were down by 15, 38-23, when the comeback began.
"Sometimes you just have to play out of those things," Harrelson said of Wayland's horrific start. "You try to get some guys in the game and get them comfortable. I didn't call a lot of timeouts.
"Marshall (Nelson) and Josh (Throns) came in and made a couple of shots."
The Pioneers ended the half on a 10-2 run, the first five of those points by
Russell Harrison who led Wayland with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Redmond hit the first of his three 3-pointers to trim the deficit to seven before Redmond converted a steal by J.J Culver into a bucket that made it 40-33 at the break.
"Basketball is a game of streaks. We made some really big plays just before halftime cut it to 7," Harrelson said.
Wayland pulled as close as two on a couple of occasions in the first six minutes of the second half, then the Rams were able to regain their composure and lengthen their lead back out to nine, 61-52.
The Pioneers then scored seven in a row – a jumper by Nelson who ended with 16 points and five points by Throns who finished with 13 – before a bucket by
Tyrone Davis tied it at 63-all, completing the 18-point comeback.
"I felt like our defense was really good in the second half," Harrelson said. "We made a couple of adjustments and the guys went out and executed. We had some guys who played some lock-down defense."
Shortly after Wayland tied it, the Pioneers took their first lead of the game, 66-64, on a 3 by Throns. The Pioneers went into a bit of a funk at that point, though, and Wesleyan ripped off a 9-2 spurt to assume a seven-point cushion with just under three minutes to go.
"I felt like we were losing control of the game in the last five or six minutes, which was a shame because we fought so hard to come back," Harrelson said. "We were getting stops (on defense) but being careless on offense."
Ultimately, however, Wayland came through yet again.
The freshman Culver scored his only four points of the game, Harrison made a lay-up, and Redmond dropped in two free throws to put Wayland up 76-75 with 36 seconds showing. Wesleyan's Dion Rogers made two foul shots with 10 seconds left to leave the Pioneers down again.
That's when all the drama unfolded.
Harrelson dialed up one play during the ensuing timeout but changed his mind just as the team was headed back to the floor. The coach said he was hoping to draw a charge on the throw-in under Wesleyan's basket, but the Pioneers didn't get the call despite Lopez falling to the ground. Still, Throns was able to get the ball to Lopez as he got to his feet, and Lopez took off up the court.
"Ruben saw (my defender) help on the penetration and he found me in the corner," Redmond said of his shot right in front of the Pioneers' bench. "I thought it was in. It felt good."
"Ruben did a great job drawing the defense and giving Mo a little extra time to get the shot off," Harrelson said. "If Mo gets his feet set he's a great stop-and-shoot guy. It was a well-executed play.
"Mo was clutch down the stretch," the coach continued. "He made some very clutch play by a senior. He's done it before, so I wasn't really surprised. I'm happy to win the game, but not surprised by the way it finished."
Redmond, who finished with 15 points, made a clutch shot from the same spot last season to force overtime against Southwestern Assemblies of God, and Wayland went on to dominate overtime and win, 108-90.
This time after Redmond drilled his shot, just under four seconds still remained on the clock. The Rams calmly dribbled up the floor and put the ball in the hands of senior guard Naiel Smith, who was redirected to the left side of the lane by Culver.
"J.J. stepped up like he was going to take a charge, and that made the guy change directions," Harrelson said. "It was very similar to our game at (Mid-America Christian)."
Unfortunately, Lopez missed that shot, but fortunately for Wayland so did Smith as time expired.
