SHAWNEE, Okla. – Ninth-ranked Oklahoma Baptist earned the home-court victory over Oklahoma City University in a 99-82 battle Saturday at the Noble Complex.
The conference-leading Bison improve to 21-6, 15-4 while the Stars fall to 16-11, 9-10 in the Sooner Athletic Conference. OCU is clinging to eighth-place in the conference standings heading into the final three contests of the regular season. The top eight teams make the post-season tournament that will be held on the Stars’ home court.
OCU was led in the loss by Orlan Jackman, a junior from London. Jackman put in 22 point on 9-of-10 shooting from the field and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw line. Jackman also had a team-high six rebounds for the Stars.
“I thought the guys played pretty hard for the most part,” OCU coach Kevin Morrissey said. “We were down by 18, 19 the second half. They could have quit and didn’t, but unfortunately we just dug ourselves a big hole. We couldn’t rebound and we couldn’t get stops when we needed to. It’s a physical game, and you’ve got to be ready to play.”
OCU found itself with the 46-36 deficit at the halftime break. The Bison extended their lead with a 16-6 run to open the second half. Oklahoma Baptist held the 64-42 lead with 15.12 to play in the game. However, the Stars continued to claw themselves back into the game, closing the gap to seven at the 12:48 mark.
Brandon Moton put in a shot to cut the lead to single-digits with 13:10 to play. Just 22 seconds later, Moton assisted on a Jackman layup to get the score to 62-55. That was the last time in the contest the game was within a 10-point margin.
“It was a seven point ballgame and we called that timeout,” Morrissey said. “We got a stop, we came down and they called Orlan for a travel. We never got closer after that, but I thought Orlan played a really well.”
Both teams shot the ball with nearly identical shooting percentages from the field. Oklahoma Baptist shot 56.1 percent to OCU’s 55.9 percent in the game. However, the Bison drained 15-of-31 3-point attempts and the long-range shot proved to be the offensive edge Oklahoma Baptist needed. Oklahoma Baptist finished with a 36-22 rebounding edge that resulted in 17 second-chance points for the Bison, which added to the scoring divide.
Oklahoma Baptist had a trio of scorers turn in 20-point performances. Maurice Foster put in 27 points and Emmanuel Wilson and Kevin Swinton both added 20 for the Bison. Wilson was 6-of-9 from 3-point range.
For the Stars, Moton finished the night with 15 points in the loss. Nate Flowers added 14 and Dee Proby chipped in 11 points for OCU.
“I just told the guys that it is imperative that we win these two games at home, it’s absolutely imperative,” Morrissey said. “It’s a quick turnaround and we can’t get down too much on this loss, but we’ve got to be ready to play.”
The Stars play host to 25th ranked Northwestern on Monday at 8 p.m. at Abe Lemons Arena.
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