OBU battles hard in Texas
February 16, 2011
The Oklahoma Baptist Men’s Basketball team survived their lowest-scoring win of the season, 61-54, at Wayland Baptist Friday. Their previous lowest-scoring win was in Noble complex in January against the Pioneers, where the Bison won 69-58.
The win gave the Bison their 20th win, and marks OBU’s 18th consecutive 20-win season.
The victory, however, was not a pretty one. OBU shot only 37 percent from the field and was out-rebounded 43-27 as starting posts Kevin Swinton and Derik Echols found themselves in foul trouble early on in the game.
“It didn’t look good but [we] found a way to win. We should have practiced on the half court trap some more. We struggled on it today,” said Head Coach Doug Tolin, who got his 301st win in this game.
The Bison led by six points at halftime, however, Rodrigo Silva for the Pioneers was the one getting all the rebounds.
“Rodrigo Silva really out-played us the first half and had more rebounds in the first half than we did,” said Tolin.
An 8-0 run by WBU had the Pioneers tied 36-36 with 12:49 left in the game.
Heath McKay hit a three and Kevin Swinton followed with a dunk to pull the Bison away with fivepoints.
The Pioneers got the game back within one, but OBU never let go of the lead. OBU matched its biggest lead of the game when Tim Bowman scored a layup with two seconds left for the final margin.
Maurice Foster led the Bison with 16 points, followed by Swinton with 15.
“That was a game we couldn’t rest anybody, we were in foul trouble from the very beginning,” Tolin said. “The big guys being in foul trouble means Maurice had to place a lot of minutes and Tim Bowman did too. That’s going to make it hard on us tomorrow, playing another afternoon game at Lubbock Christian.”
Whether it was the extensive playing time of Maurice Foster and Tim Bowman in the WBU game, Jacobi Isham and Derick Echols being ejected, or Kevin Swinton’s technical... something went wrong in the afternoon game at Lubbock Christian. Oklahoma Baptist fell short on Saturday at Lubbock Christian, losing 77-75.
Before the chaos of players being ejected and given a technical, OBU was leading the game by 9 points.
At the end of the half, OBU had maintained a small lead.
After the half, LCU took a 74-73 lead with a minute and a half to go.
Emmanuel Wilson then scored for the Bison to make it a 75-74 lead, but a three-pointer by the Chaparrals gave LCU a two-point edge.
OBU had one more good chance, but it would have been a tough finish.
“I thought our guys fought hard and competed, they just made one more play than we did,” said Tolin. “We still have a chance to control our own destiny.”
Swinton led the Bison with 20 points, followed by Allen Hester with 19 and Foster and Wilson with 12 a piece.
Kenny Hewitt led LCU with 24 points.
The Bison look to extend their record to 20-6 as they host Mid-America Christian Thursday night at 8 p.m. in the Noble Complex Arena.
