Gallery: (2-28-2022) Men's Basketball vs. USAO
OKLAHOMA CITY – The red-hot Wayland Baptist Pioneers just keep getting hotter, and now they're just one win away from a conference tournament title.
RJ Mason scored 20 points and
Thad Udoh 18 as the Pioneers picked up their biggest win over the season here Monday afternoon, knocking off 10
th-ranked Science & Arts of Oklahoma, 73-68, in a Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal at Gaulke Activity Center on the campus of Mid-America Christian University.
With their ninth win in their last 10 games, the fourth-seeded Pioneers (20-12) advance to the title game against third-seeded, 24
th-ranked Southwestern Assemblies of God (21-8), which on Monday defeated third-seeded Oklahoma City University (17-14), 78-64. The final is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championships.
Bracket
"We played incredible defensive again today, and that will be the key (Tuesday)," WBU coach
Clint Galyean said. "If we can hold either one of them to under 65, it will give us a good chance."
Wayland, ousted in the conference tournament in the first round the last three seasons, is in the conference tournament final for the first time since 2018. The Pioneers will be seeking their first conference tourney title since back-to-back crowns in 2015 and '16 when WBU capped a run of three straight conference title game appearances.
The Pioneers split regular-season games with SAGU – falling to the then 12
th-ranked Lions, 67-65, in Waxahachie before a lopsided 94-74 victory in Plainview on Feb. 17 in the next-to-last regular-season game.
That 20-point blowout victory over the Lions might have been the most impressive of the season for Wayland before Monday afternoon's triumph over the 10
th-ranked Drovers (25-7), the SAC regular-season champion looking to win a second straight conference tournament.
Wayland led most of the game, by as many as nine, 50-41, five minutes into the second half. But the Drovers battled back and took a 61-59 lead with just under six minutes to play.
The teams traded the upper-hand a couple more times, with MACU's last lead coming when Gerard Makuntae hit a 3-pointer for a 67-65 lead with 1:08 to play. But Mason answered for Wayland with a 3 from in front of the Pioneer bench, his only bomb of the game after four misses, and the Pioneers never gave up control again.
In between a pair of missed 3s for S&A, freshman
Dylan McDougal hit two free throws that gave Wayland a 3-point lead. The Pioneers couldn't extend their lead at the free throw line, but got the ball back when SAC Player of the Year Cameron Hines turned it over on a double-dribble with 18 seconds to play.
Wayland's
Gage Hulse was quickly fouled and hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it a two-possession game with 14 seconds left. After being fouled on a 3-pointer, the Drovers' Elvin Rodriguez was able to make just 1-of-3 charity shots. WBU's
Josh Servantez grabbed a long rebound after the last miss, and after he was fouled completed the scoring with two free throws with three ticks left.
The win avenged two regular-season losses to S&A, 73-70 in Plainview on Jan. 6 and 83-73 on Feb. 12 in Chickasha, Okla., which was WBU's only defeat in the past 4½ weeks.
The Pioneers improved to 18-2 when holding opponents to under 70 points.
"USAO is so good offensively. They've been averaging 90-something (points) the last couple of weeks, so to hold them to 68, and 37 percent from the field, was huge," Galyean said.
Wayland won despite hitting just 63 percent (20-of-32) from the foul line and 21 percent (5-of-24) from 3-point range, in part because the Pioneers doubled the Drovers in points-off-turnovers, 26-13.
Besides Mason's 20 (16 in the second half) and Udoh's 18 (16 in the first half),
Jaxon Recer put in nine plus got eight rebounds for Wayland.
Jibrael Washington pulled down a game-best nine boards and added a pair of blocks to his career program-record.
"Thad was huge for us the first half, and RJ was huge in the second half," said Galyean, who also praised the defense of Washington, the SAC Defensive Player of the Year. "Jibrael impacts the game so much. The way makes them hesitate. He's definitely the best defensive big man I've ever coached."
Hines paced the Drovers with 18 points, followed by Stephon Hall with 17, Rodriguez with 11 and Makuntae with 10.
