Senior Day couldn't have been scripted any better for the Wayland Baptist Pioneers on Saturday afternoon as the team's four seniors led them to an 86-74 victory over Oklahoma City University to secure their first-ever outright Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season title.
"We wanted to, of course, win it for our seniors on Senior Day, and win it ourselves and not rely on somebody else to win it for us," Wayland coach
Ty Harrelson said of the conference title. "I thought we played really well."
All four seniors scored in double figures, with
Spencer Lindsey pumping in a career-best 21 points,
Trevonta Robertson 18,
Josh Throns 17 and
Rokas Mazionis 10 for the ninth-ranked Pioneers (22-6, 17-3 SAC), who earned at least a share of the title with their win Thursday over Southwestern Christian. The team cut the net down after that victory, and Saturday's win guaranteed Wayland the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament.
"Our seniors were fantastic. All four of them scored in double-figures," Harrelson said. "I thought they played well together offensively, and defensively they were getting stops."
The Pioneers never trailed against 18
th-ranked OCU (17-9, 12-8), which was last week's NABC NAIA Team of the Week riding a six-game win streak. But the Stars arrived in town fresh off a 92-70 loss at Oklahoma-Panhandle State, and it appeared Wayland would defeat OCU going away with a 15-point halftime lead.
Fueled by a dunk by Mazionis and 3-pointers by Robertson and Lindsey, the Pioneers opened the second half with an 11-2 run to go up by 24. But the Stars kept chipping away and eventually cut the deficit to just two, 73-71, with 5½ minutes to play.
"We went a little bit cold in the second half when OCU went to a zone. We took a couple of quick shots and probably relaxed a little bit," Harrelson said. "Chris Williams made some really tough shots, and Eric Wattree hit a couple of tough 3s, plus they started getting to the free throw line."
After OCU missed a chance to tie it with a pair of errant free throws, Wayland regained control by outscoring the Stars 13-3 the rest of the way.
"Once we started moving the ball again and playing together we found the shots we wanted," Harrelson said.
The win-sealing run began when Robertson hit a jumper before
J.J. Culver sank four straight free throws. A 3-pointer by Chris Williams with 3:10 to go wound up being OCU's final points of the game, after which Wayland got two free throws each by Robertson and Lindsey on either side of a crushing 3-pointer by Throns, this last of his five bombs.
"All four of (the seniors) made big plays, and all four were there down the stretch when we took the game back under control, which is what seniors are supposed to do," Harrelson said. "We're all really happy for them that they've led our program to where we want it, and then performed like that on Senior Day. I hope it's something they always remember."
Lindsey's 21 points, on 7-of-10 shooting including 3-of-5 3-pointers and 4-of-4 free throws, shattered his previous best of 13. Culver finished with eight points and a team-high eight rebounds, a category where Wayland outdid OCU, 38-29.
OCU was led by Williams with 28 Eric Wattree with 17. Eric McCollum pulled down 11 boards.
Wayland shot 63 percent (17-of-27) in the first half and wound up at 50 percent (28-of-56).
The Pioneers will be back in the Hutch for their final time Feb. 26 when they host their first-round game in the conference tournament before that event concludes at OCU. Before all of that, Wayland winds up the regular season with three road games: an exhibition Tuesday at UT-Rio Grande Valley then two SAC games against Texas Wesleyan and Southwestern Assemblies of God.
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