Wayland Baptist was well on its way to securing an 11
th- straight win, but the University of Science & Arts rallied for an 86-85 Sooner Athletic Conference victory after a last-second shot by the Pioneers didn't fall Thursday night at Hutcherson Center.
Wayland (20-7, 15-6 SAC), ranked the equivalent of 31
st in the NAIA, led by nine points in the game's first four minutes and by as many as 11, 65-54, with 14½ minutes to play in the contest. The Pioneers were up nine with just under six minutes to go, but that's when the Drovers – who were ranked No. 13 in the NAIA to start the season – went on an 11-2 run to tie it at 83 with 2½ minutes showing.Â
Manny Crump hit a pair of free throws to put WBU on top, then USAO got a point back at the foul stripe before Wayland missed a hurried 3-pointer with 50 seconds to go. The Drovers then missed a shot and the Pioneers rebounded, but USAO was able to quickly strip the ball away and score what turned out to be the winning bucket on a layup by Samkelo Cele with 30 seconds to play. Cele had a chance at 3-point play but missed the free throw, keeping it a one-point Wayland deficit.
The Pioneers'
Reece Spencer, the reigning SAC Player of the Week, then drove in for a tough layup but missed. USAO grabbed the loose ball that Spencer tried to throw off a Drover before falling out of bounds before Tyler Cauley was fouled. Cauley missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 15 ticks left, giving Wayland another shot.
The Pioneers called timeout with five seconds to play, setting up a situation similar to what the Flying Queens faced in the prior game when Jenna Cooper-Jackson broke a tie score with a game-winning bucket. The Pioneers, however, trailed by one, making a successful field goal even more important.
Pioneer senior point-guard
RJ Mason, after getting the ball back from Spencer following an inbounds pass, got a good look at a 3-pointer on the left wing in front of the WBU bench, but it missed. Wayland couldn't cleanly grab a rebound and the ball bounded out of bounds under the basket as time expired.
The loss snapped Wayland's 10-game winning streak that had matched the program's longest run since the Pioneers won 12 in a row during the 1990-91 season.
Five Pioneers scored in double-figures, led by Mason with 13 points that included three 3s to go with seven assists and no turnovers.
Parrish Hewitt and
Tedrick Wolfe, who had no fewer than four highlight-reel alley oop dunks, added a dozen points each while Crump got 11 and
Jaxon Recer 10. Spencer finished with nine and
D'Michael Bellfield had eight.
Wayland committed just nine turnovers but struggled from the free-throw line (8-of-14, 57 percent) and from the 3-point stripe (7-of-25, 28 percent). USAO, which got 27 points from Cele and 22 from Makuntae Gerard, hit 9-of-20 3s (45 percent) and outrebounded the Pioneers, 42-36. Both teams managed just four offensive rebounds each
Despite the loss, Wayland can secure the No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference tournament behind fifth-ranked, top-seeded Langston with a win in its regular-season finale at 3:45 p.m. Saturday at home against Texas Wesleyan (13-13, 10-10). Wayland will be looking to avenge a 95-90 loss to the Rams in Fort Worth back on Jan. 12.
Texas Wesleyan's game at Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Thursday was delayed until Friday afternoon due to inclement weather.
WBU also secures the No. 2 seed, regardless of the outcome in its game against TXWES, if Langston defeats third-place Southwestern Assemblies of God (19-8, 14-7) on Saturday.
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