Gallery: (2-4-2021) Men's Basketball vs. SAGU
Wayland Baptist couldn't pull off another upset of Southwestern Assemblies of God as the Pioneers fell to the No. 15 Lions in Thursday night's battle for Sooner Athletic Conference supremacy inside Hutcherson Center, 62-54.
Wayland defeated the Lions in overtime, 93-83, when they met in Waxahachie on Jan. 11, handing SAGU (5-1, 4-1 SAC) its lone loss of the season. The Pioneers (6-4, 5-3) might have been able to pull off the sweep if not for committing way too many turnovers and hitting way too few free throws. Wayland suffered 28 giveaways while making just 9-of-21 foul shots.
The Pioneers opened the game with a 3-pointer by Jordan Brannon, but SAGU netted the next 13 points as Wayland went almost nine points without scoring. The Lions led 16-5 when suddenly the momentum shifted Wayland's way and the Pioneers went on an amazing 19-0 run, quickly taking them from an 11-point deficit to a nine-point lead, 25-16. SAGU went almost seven minutes without scoring.
Gage Hulse hit a pair of free throws with no time on the clock to give the Pioneers a 29-25 intermission edge. But Wayland didn't connect on many foul shots after that, hitting just 4-of-12 from the foul stripe in the second half.
Still, the Pioneers led by as many as 10, 37-27, and were up eight, 41-33, with just under 13 minutes left. That's when SAGU scored 15 straight points as Wayland suffered another scoring drought, this one more than six minutes long that allowed the Lions to go up by seven, 48-41.
Wayland cut it to two, 49-47, on a layup by Jordan Brannon with three minutes left, but the Lions put up five unanswered. Tre Fillmore hit a much-needed 3 for Wayland that got the Pioneers within four with two minutes to go, but that's as close as they came the rest of the way.
SAGU's Joel Polius hit two clutch free throws with 12 ticks to go to make it a seven-point game. Wayland missed a shot and Polius closed out the scoring with one more free throw.
The 54 points were by far Wayland's lowest total of the season, previously 67. It was the Pioneers' lowest-scoring game since 97-50 loss on Jan. 4, 2020, to Texas Wesleyan.
Chinedu Okonkwo led WBU with 12 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double. Hulse added 11 points.
The teams combined for 51 turnovers as SAGU gave it away 23 times, five fewer than Wayland. But while the Pioneers shot just 43 percent from the free-throw line, the Lions managed a more respectable 73 percent, 11-of-15.
Wayland shot 35 percent from the field (20-of-58) and 21 percent (5-of-24) from long range. SAGU was some better: 38 percent (22-of-58) and 30 percent (7-of-23).
The Pioneers now will go for a sweep of Texas Wesleyan, a team the Pioneers downed in Fort Worth on Jan. 9, 78-75. The rematch happens at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Rams (9-2, 5-2), ranked the equivalent of 30th in the NAIA, defeated Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Thursday, 86-78.
