FOREST CITY, Iowa – Wayland Baptist hit a dozen 3-pointers – five each by
J.J. Culver and
CJ Obinwa – to power the third-ranked Pioneers to an 89-73 victory over Waldorf in the first round of the Waldorf Classic here Friday night.
"I thought we played well. It's always good to get a road win against the (tournament) host team," Wayland coach
Ty Harrelson said.
Culver finished with 31 points and Obinwa 22 to lead the unbeaten Pioneers (4-0), who next take on Bellevue, Neb., at 2 p.m. Saturday. Bellevue fell to Hope International, Calif., ranked the equivalent of 26
th, on Friday, 81-66.
"Bellevue plays with a lot of energy," Harrelson said. "They've won their conference something like nine of the last 10 years. They're in the same conference as Waldorf so they've played in this gym many times.
"We'll have to come back ready to play tomorrow."
Against Waldorf (1-6), the Pioneers and Warriors were tied at 23 when Wayland scored eight straight points on a 3-pointer by
Gage Hulse, a bucket by Obinwa, and a 3 by Culver.
"We started slow. Waldorf tried to spread us out and hit a couple of 3s early, but our guys were pretty resilient and fought back," Harrelson said.
The Pioneers ended the first half on a 7-0 run to lead 45-29 at the break. But Waldorf scored five unanswered points to open the second half and pull within 11. That's as close as the Warriors got, however, until late.
Wayland built as much as a 23-point lead until Walforf cut it to 10, 74-64, with just under six minutes to play. Culver answered with back-to-back 3s before Obinwa knocked down a bomb that virtually sealed the victory, putting the Pioneers up by 16 with under four minutes showing.
Besides the 53 combined points by Culver, who hit 10-of-13 free throws, and Obinwa, who was 5-of-6 from long range,
Jack Nobles got 13 points, five rebounds and a team-high four assists.
"I thought we shot the ball really well, especially JJ and C.J." Harrelson said. "It's always important to us that we take good shots, and CJ always does, and today he was knocking them down."
Wayland also dominated the boards, 38-20, and the Pioneers allowed the Warriors just two offensive rebounds. Obinwa,
Jordan Brannon and
Deng Bol Yol got six rebounds each.
"We were much bigger than Waldorf, and I thought our guys did a good job crashing the glass," Harrelson said.
The Pioneers' bench outscored Waldorf's subs, 20-6.
