OKLAHOMA CITY –
Trevonta Robertson scored 19 points and pulled down eight rebounds to help Wayland Baptist bounce back from a rare home loss with a clutch 68-52 victory over Mid-America Christian here Thursday night. The win strengthened the Pioneers' hold on first place in the Sooner Athletic Conference, which Wayland leads by two games.
"It was a great road win," Wayland coach
Ty Harrelson said. "I thought defensively it was a great effort from all 12 guys. We defended for 40 minutes. We didn't do that last Saturday (in a loss to John Brown), but we did tonight and I feel like that's what led to the victory."
With the first game of the second half of conference play tied at 14, Wayland (15-5, 10-2 SAC) began pulling away from the Evangels (12-7, 5-6), who were looking for their fifth-straight win. Eleven unanswered points gave the Pioneers a 33-19 lead with five minutes left before halftime, which came with WBU up by nine, 37-28.
"My assistants (
Landon Hughey,
Xavier Webb and
Ruben Lopez) did a great job with the scouting report and having our guys prepared," Harrelson said.
MACU opened second-half scoring with a 3 to cut it to six, but that's as close as the Evangels ever came. Wayland was up by that same six points, 44-38, when
CJ Obinwa opened and
Tre Fillmore closed a 9-0 run with 3-pointers.
"We had a group of guys in there that got several stops. It seemed like MACU got stuck on 38 points," Harrelson said. "Even guys who didn't score as much as they usually do still defended, which part of the reason we're in first place is we've improved defensively."
The Pioneers' lead grew to as many as 21.
Seeing his first action after a seven-game, five-week layoff, Robertson finished 7-of-13 from the field with a pair of 3s toward his 19 points.
"He was really focused and locked in today," Harrelson said of Robertson. "I hate that he had to sit out, but I feel like he came back and better understands what we're trying to do. He was fantastic today. I'm happy for Trevonta and proud of him."
J.J. Culver added a dozen points, Lindsey 10 and Obinwa nine. Wayland also had
Jack Nobles back in the starting lineup after he missed three games due to injury. Nobles finished with four points and four boards.
MACU placed only one player in double figures, Anthony Black with 11 points.
The 52 points allowed matched the third-fewest for a Wayland opponent this season, behind only 49 points by Arlington Baptist in the season-opener and 50 by this same MACU team in a 20-point Pioneer win in Plainview on Dec. 1.
Wayland shot 48 percent (25-of-52) from the field, including 7-of-20 3s (35 percent), compared to MACU's efforts of 30 percent overall (18-of-60) and 24 percent from long range (8-of-34). The Pioneers won the rebounding battle, 41-35, while committing 10 turnovers, one more than the Evangels.
WBU was credited with 30 points in the paint compared to only 10 for MACU.
Next for the Pioneers is a 4 p.m. game Saturday in Chickasha, Okla., against No. 20 USAO (14-6, 7-5), which has dropped back-to-back games to Southwestern Christian and Oklahoma-Panhandle State. After sweeping them in three meetings last season, Wayland defeated the Drovers when they met in this season's conference-opener Nov. 29 in Plainview, 95-88.
"It's always a battle with USAO, especially at their place," Harrelson said. "We've had several close games, and they'll want to bounce back."
