Servantez, Brannon net career-bests as Pioneers win SAC opener

Josh Servantez scored a career-high 22 points and Jordan Brannon did the same with 21, and Wayland Baptist logged the final six points of the game to pull out a 71-66 victory over Southwestern Christian and open Sooner Athletic Conference play with a win Thursday night in Hutcherson Center.
 
The back-and-forth game saw Wayland (4-2, 1-0 SAC) – playing without a pair of injured starters – lead by seven in the first half and Southwestern Christian by seven in the second. The visiting Eagles (2-2, 0-1) overcame a second seven-point deficit with an 11-3 run that had Wayland down 64-63.
 
But after a bucket with 2:48 to play that gave the Eagles a 66-65 lead, Southwestern Christian never scored another point as Wayland's defense clamped down. Meanwhile, Wayland's offense came up with big points by Javorian Miller and, after a steal by Jaxon Recer, a clutch 3-pointer by Josh Servantez with a defender in his face.
 
That made it 70-66 with 1:46 to play, and neither team scored again after a series of turnovers and missed shots, until Recer hit a single free throw with a second to play.
 
Servantez came off the bench to score his career-high 22 points, which doubled his previous best which he reached in Wayland's last game. In fact, Servantez bettered his total from all of last season by five points.
 
The 6-foot guard hit 6-of-10 3-pointers, with Brannon accounting for Wayland's four other 3s. Miller also reached double-digit scoring with 10, while Thad Udoh had eight.
 
Recer wound up with 13 rebounds as Wayland held a 35-26 advantage on the boards.
 
Five Eagles scored between 10-15 points, headed by York Benjamin.
 
After hitting under 40 percent (11-of-28) from the field in the first half, Wayland shot almost 60 percent (14-of-24) in the second, including 6-of-11 (55 percent) from long range.
 
Wayland returns to action at 3:45 p.m. Saturday at home against 21^st-ranked Mid-America Christian. The Evangels (6-2, 0-1) are coming off back-to-back losses, first to a University of the Southwest team (86-67) which Wayland beat (71-64), and most recently to Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Thursday, 71-68.