McPHERSON, Kan. –
J.J. Culver scored 24 points as Wayland Baptist held off the determined Central Christian Tigers for an 89-80 Sooner Athletic Conference win here Saturday afternoon.
"They made a run or two, but I felt we controlled the rest of the game," Wayland coach
Ty Harrelson said. "It's great to win on the road. Any time you can go on the road and win two (Wayland defeated Langston on Thursday, 87-62) in our conference it's important."
After leading early by six, Wayland (11-5, 5-3 SAC) saw the Tigers (8-8, 1-7) score 12 unanswered points to take a 20-11 lead. The Pioneers answered right away by going on a 13-0 run to go up 24-20. That was part of a 25-3 run, and Wayland never trailed again.
Tre Fillmore hit a pair of 3-pointers during Wayland's game-changing run that saw six different Pioneers score.
Wayland's lead shrunk to five, 36-31, early in the second half, but Culver hit back-to-back 3s plus another field goal for nine straight points that quickly took the lead back to 13.
The Pioneers went up by as many as 19 before the Tigers rallied to within seven, 62-55 with 9½ minutes left. Central Christian got within seven on a couple of other occasions the rest of the way, but that's as close as the Tigers came.
"Jack (Nobles) had two really important possessions in a row where he scored, and Matthew (Mulloy) had a dunk and got fouled during an important part of the game.
Jordan Brannon made an important 3-pointer. We had several guys step up," Harrelson said.
Culver made four clutch free throws in the final 90 seconds and finished 8-of-8 from the foul line. He hit 6-of-10 field goals, including 4-of-6 3s, toward his 24 points.
"I thought J.J. was really tough. He played well both games this week," Harrelson said of Culver, who also had six rebounds, three assists and no turnovers in 33-plus minutes.
Nobles tacked on 18 points, Fillmore 12 (on 4-of-6 3s), and Mulloy and
CJ Obinwa 10 each. Obinwa was the game's top rebounder with nine.
"Our scoring was pretty balanced, and I thought we did a good job sharing the basketball," Harrelson said.
Wayland hit 9-of-16 3s (56 percent) as part of 31-of-56 shooting (55 percent) from the field. The Pioneers hit 69 percent (18-of-26) from the free-throw line.
The Tigers, who got 17 points from Andrew Epps and 15 from Ben Glover, were hurt by making just 25-of-45 (56 percent) free throws. Central Christian made 9-of-28 3s (32 percent).
"We stretched the game out by putting them on the line. We need to improve on not fouling in those situations," Harrelson said.
The game saw 37 turnovers, 20 by the Tigers.
It was Wayland's third straight win after a four-game losing skid that dropped the Pioneers from No. 9 in the NAIA to the equivalent of 34
th.
The Pioneers are back in Hutcherson Center Tuesday, opening a five-game home stretch against Oklahoma-Panhandle State at 7:45 p.m. OPSU (3-12, 0-8) dropped its 11
th straight game Saturday to Langston, 75-66.
"I feel like we are back to where we were before Christmas," Harrelson said. "Hopefully we can keep that momentum going into our home stretch."
