LANGSTON, Okla. – This time, the buzzer-beating ball didn't bounce Wayland's way.
Less than 48 hours after Wayland Baptist benefited from a last-second, game-winning play, the 19
th-ranked Pioneers couldn't come up with the magical bucket here Saturday afternoon. Junior
CJ Obinwa missed a 3-pointer right before the final buzzer, and the No. 6 Lions took over sole possession of first place in the Sooner Athletic Conference with a 72-69 victory.
Wayland (8-3, 3-1 SAC) held as much as a 15-point first-half lead, but the Lions (12-0, 4-0) came roaring back.
Langston scored the last seven points of the first half to cut the Pioneers' lead to eight, 40-32. Wayland managed to stay on top until the Lions assumed their first lead of the game, 53-52, with 11½ minutes left. WBU battled back, and the lead changed hands six more times.
Two free throws by
Josh Throns gave Wayland a 69-68 lead with 2:00 to play, but those were WBU's final points of the game. Throns misfired on a 3-pointer that would have made it a two-possession game, then Langston's Jorori Coleman connected after rebounding a missed 3-pointer with 37 ticks left to put the Lions up by one.
Obinwa missed for Wayland with 19 seconds to go, and, after a WBU foul, the Lions' Jerami Grace dropped in a pair of free throws with 0:11 showing. Finally, Obinwa couldn't get a would-be game-tying 3-pointer to fall at the buzzer.
The 69 points represented the second-fewest for Wayland all season as the Pioneers shot 46 percent (23-of-50) from the field, including 33 percent (6-of-18) from beyond the arc. Wayland made 17-of-22 free throws (77 percent). Langston shot worse in all three areas: 41 percent (24-of-59) from the field, 22 percent (6-of-27) 3s, and 75 percent (18-of-24) at the foul stripe.
Throns, after scoring a season-high 27 in Thursday's win over Central Christian, again led Wayland, but with just 13. He made 7-of-7 foul shots.
J.J. Culver added 12 points and
Jack Nobles 10.
Trevonta Robertson,
whose four-point play with 1.7 seconds left gave Wayland the one-point win Thursday, was held to three points on 0-of-7 shooting from the field, including 0-of-4 from long range.
Coleman led Langston with 17 points. The Lions outrebounded Wayland, 35-32, and the Pioneers had 16 turnovers, four more than the home team.
The Pioneers take a break from SAC play when they go to Belton to take on Mary Hardin-Baylor (9-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday. UMHB won the NCAA Division III national title in football on Friday with a 24-16 victory over Mount Union.
