First vs. worst proved more interesting than some might have thought it would, but in the end the No. 14 Wayland Baptist Pioneers picked up another win and tightened their grip on first place with a 90-77 Sooner Athletic Conference win over Bacone College on Thursday night in Hutcherson Center.
"It was a good team win for us," Wayland coach Ty Harrelson said. "There were moments in there where we looked like we were missing two starters and we played six games in 15 days, which is the case, but there were also some really good moments."
Many of those moments for the Pioneers (14-4, 9-1 SAC) were provided by J.J. Culver, Tre Fillmore and Josh Throns, who finished with 24, 20 and 19 points, respectively.                            Â
"J.J. was all over the place tonight. I thought he played another great game," Harrelson said of the junior who went 9-of-12 from the field and also came up with six rebounds, six steals and four assists. Culver now is seven points away from 1,000 for his career.
Harrelson added, "Josh shot the ball well. It's nice when you have (taller players like) Josh and Spencer (Lindsey). They can stretch the floor with the 3." Lindsey came off the bench for nine points.
In addition to Lindsey and Fillmore, the coach also praised subs Chris Doerue and Jeremy Betjol. "Those guys all played really well. We went on a 12-0 run and went up 24-13. I thought those were crucial minutes."
That stretch – started when Bacone was up 13-12 – featured four 3-pointers: two by Fillmore and one each by Culver and Lindsey. Another trey by Fillmore (he finished 4-of-8 from long range) gave Wayland an 18-point, 37-19 lead with just under seven minutes in the first half, and Wayland appeared to be starting to run away with it.
But the Warriors (2-13, 0-10) didn't throw in the towel. Instead, a 3-pointer by Christian Brown just before the halftime horn brought Bacone to with 11, 48-37.
"Right before halftime I thought we had a chance to push that lead out to 16, but we missed a layup and they came down and hit a really deep 3, and so I thought they took momentum into halftime," Harrelson said.
Another 3 by Brown, who finished with 26 points and hit 5-of-10 from beyond the arc, to open the second half made it an 8-point game, then yet another 3 by Brown cut it to seven, 53-46.
Shortly after that Wayland made another impressive run, this one spearheaded by Culver as the Pioneers put up 10 unanswered points. Culver got back-to-back buckets – the second after a steal – before he fed Throns on a pair of fast-break 3s.
"J.J. was involved in all of those points," Harrelson said.
The Warriors made one last run behind Brown and Marvin Goudeau, who put in 21 for Bacone, all on 3-pointers as he went 7-of-13 from long range. Brown and Goudeau, both juniors, combined for 47 points and went 12-of-23 from 3-point range.
"Goudeau and Brown shot the ball really well," Harrelson said.
Bacone pulled within nine, 86-77, with a little under 2 minutes to go, and Brown had a chance to make it six but missed a 3. From there the Pioneers got two free throws from Throns, who after Brown and Goudeau misfired on three 3s, fed Fillmore on a breakaway dunk to finally put the Warriors away.
"Tre carried over what he did in the first half and what he did on Tuesday night" when he scored a career-best 24 points in a win over Oklahoma-Panhandle State, Harrelson said.
Besides winning their game, the Pioneers also benefited from results around the conference that saw all of three of the SAC's other ranked teams fall. No. 8 Langston lost to Mid-America Christian, 88-79, No. 20 USAO fell to Central Christian, 69-63, and No. 24 John Brown went down to Oklahoma-Panhandle State, 71-69.
The Pioneers host John Brown (12-6, 6-4), losers of three straight on the heels of a 71-69 win over then No. 4 Langston, at 4 p.m. Saturday.
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