November 10, 2010
Most of the roster is new, but the results for the first three games are just as impressive as the past few seasons. The Oklahoma Baptist University men’s basketball team is off to a 3-0 start with a 41 point average of victory.
“You can’t always compare just this year to last year,” Head Coach Doug Tolin said. “There’s a lot more to it than that. We knew we could win these games, so it doesn’t show a whole lot about our team so far. But we’ll really find out a lot this week.”
The latest victory was a 100-35 thrashing of Manhattan Christian College. There were no ties, there were no lead changes and the Bison looked strong and dominant from start to finish.
Emmanuel Wilson led the scorers with 22 points and shot 7/11 from the field. Wilson and Tim Bowman combined for 10 of OBU’s astonishing 19 three-pointers. Bowman finished with 19 points and 8 assists. As a team, OBU shot nearly 50% from the field, and dominated the Crusaders in every statistical category.
“We’ve gotten better defensively, especially with our rebounding,” Tolin said. “This team listens and improves, and they also execute well. We’re a bit undersized right now, but really we just have to get better every week. Right now we’re a pretty tough and hard-working team.”
The basketball team’s next challenge will be against Southeastern Oklahoma State, whom they narrowly defeated 106-101 last year in double overtime; largely due to former Bison standouts Nate Brumfield, Jerrod Tillmon and AJ Hawkins.
Coach Tolin seemed excited about the tough games ahead, and anticipates a challenging experience. “We’ll find out a lot more about our team this week,” Tolin said.
“These are two really good teams we’re about to play. I’m pleased with where we’re at, but we can always improve.”
OBU will host Southeastern Oklahoma State Thursday at 7 p.m. and powerhouse Louisiana-Shreveport for the homecoming game Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
