Bison Return Home for First Time in 2020

SHAWNEE - The Oklahoma Baptist men's basketball team will take their home floor for the first time in 2020 as they welcome in Harding on Thursday evening before closing the weekend against Arkansas Tech on Saturday afternoon.

Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. between the set of Bison on Thursday inside the Noble Complex while the Bison and Wonder Boys tip things off at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. The game will feature coverage on KGFF in Shawnee and live video available on obubison.com with Todd Miller and Scott Wanish.

The Bison check in at 8-4 overall and 3-3 in the GAC as they put their perfect 5-0 record inside the Noble Complex on the line in this upcoming slate of games.

After falling to Henderson State on the road by the score of 83-70 last Thursday, the Bison responded in a big way by blowing out Ouachita on their home floor by the score of 80-62. The Bison held Ouachita to 32 percent shooting from the field on 18 made field goals while knocking down 12 3-pointers. 

In the loss to Henderson, Dishon Lowery scored a season-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds while Brantly Thompson had 13 points. 

In the win over the Tigers, Harrison Stoddart had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards to go with three blocks and a steal. Jarius Hicklen added 12 points and two steals while Jaquan Simms had 11 points and three 3-pointers. Thompson scored nine with two steals while Rashad Lewis had nine points, five rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Trey Green scored eight off the bench while Mohammed Abubakar had four points, six boards, and three blocks.

Simms leads the pack this season with 12.3 points per game on 43 percent shooting form behind the arc while Lewis checks in with 11.8 points per game to go with 45 assists and 17 steals. Stoddart averaged 10.3 points per game and a team-leading 19 blocks while Lowery and Thompson are each at 9.2 points per game while Lowery pulling down 5.9 boards to lead the team. Hicklen continues to come on strong as he averaged 8.3 points per game. 

OBU averages 84.7 points per game and shoots 39 percent from behind the arc at a team. The Bison are +6.3 in rebounds and average 16.1 assists per game. 

They welcome in a Harding team that comes in at 6-6 overall and 1-5 in the GAC with their lone victory coming over Henderson State on their home floor. The Bisons have lost three games in a row including a pair of home double-digit losses last week to East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma State.

Harding is led by Romio Harvey, who averages 23.3 points per game on 45 percent shooting from the field including 41 percent from behind the arc. Harvey also has 30 assists on the season. Joel Polius is right behind him with 9.3 points per game, a team-leading 7.2 rebound sper game, 13 steals and 17 blocks.

Arkansas Tech comes into town on Saturday after they take on Southern Nazarene on Thursday. The Wonder Boys enter with an 8-4 record including a 4-2 record in GAC, but are 0-3 in away games so far this season. Tech has won two straight with impressive home wins over Southeastern Oklahoma State and East Central last week as well as handing Arkansas-Monticello their lone conference loss so far this season.

R.J. Glasper returns to the floor for the Wonder Boys as he comes in averaging 18.9 points per game including 48 percent from the field, 42 percent from behind the arc, and 20 steals to go with 76 assists. Dillon Gooding follows with 13.3 points per game to go with a team-leading 24 steals while Devante Foster adds 10.9 points per game to go with a team-leading 6.8 rebounds per game.

Reserved and general admission tickets for this weekend's contests are available at the Noble Complex box office, or online at OBUBison.com/Tickets. As part of OBU Athletics' #OBUFanuary, all tickets are half price. Also, the first 50 students and the first 50 fans will receive an OBU beanie. On Saturday OBU Athletics' will be hosting Kids Day, all children's tickets are $2 and carnival games will be set up in the Hurt Suite.