FOREST CITY, Iowa – Wayland Baptist led by 19 points, but Bellevue University (Neb.) rallied with a barrage of 3-pointers, the last with three seconds left to hand the No. 3 Pioneers their first setback of the season, 79-78, as part of the Waldorf Classic here Saturday.
A bucket by Wayland's
J.J. Culver – who finished with 40 points – on a finger-roll drive was waved off by officials, ruled that it left his hand just after the buzzer.
"I'm going to take the blame for our performance in the second half," WBU coach
Ty Harrelson said. "Our guys played hard. I didn't have an answer for their offense, and it cost us."
Senior all-American Culver scored more than half of Wayland's points, one off the career-high he scored against McMurry in the second game of the season, but it wasn't quite enough against the Bruins (4-3).
A day after beating tournament host Waldorf, 89-73, and in their final tune-up before the start of Sooner Athletic Conference play, Wayland (4-1) enjoyed a solid first half, building a 17-point, 45-28 intermission lead. The Pioneers scored the first bucket of the second half to make it a 19-point spread.
The Bruins – who on Friday lost to Hope International (Calif.), ranked the equivalent of 26
th in the NAIA, 81-66 – hit seven straight points for their initial push back in it. Wayland still led by 11, 64-53, midway through the second half, but Bellevue began to heat up from the perimeter and went on a 13-0 run as the Pioneers were held scoreless for the next five minutes.
Wayland fell behind by five, but a 3-pointer by Culver put the Pioneers back in front, 73-71, with 2½ minutes left. Another 3 by Culver expanded the lead to 78-74 with 44 seconds to go.
Bellevue got a quick bucket from Niamey Harris, then after Culver missed a jumper from 17 seconds showing, the Bruins called timeout to set up their final play. Senior guard Connor Dukes nailed the last of his four 3-pointers with three seconds left to win it.
Culver's 40 points – one off his career-high established against McMurry in the second game of the season – came on 11-of-27 shooting from the field, including 6-of-15 3-pointers, and a 12-of-14 free-throw effort.
Jack Nobles added 13 points and
CJ Obinwa 10.
Wayland finished 11-of-25 (44 percent) from long range, compared to Bellevue's 15-of-29 (52 percent). Jameil King paced the Bruins with 22 points, followed by Duke and Jaylen Wiltz with a dozen each.
The Pioneers hit 19-of-22 (86 percent) of their free throws, versus 18-of-25 (72 percent) for Bellevue.
"Anyone can see the stats and how well Bellevue shot the ball and how many times they were at the line in the second half (15-of-21, compared to 6-of-6 for Wayland)," Harrelson said.
"We will learn from it and get better as the season progresses."
The Pioneers begin defense of their conference title next week by playing their fifth and sixth straight road games against Southwestern Christian (3-2) at 8 p.m. Thursday followed by Oklahoma City University (5-2), ranked the equivalent of 34
th, at 3:45 Saturday.
