SHAWNEE - Since arriving on Bison Hill, Head Coach
Jason Eaker has preached about building a basketball program, and especially building one with such a rich and long-standing history such at Oklahoma Baptist -- a program that at one point from the 1990s to the early 2010s had won 20 or more games in 21 straight seasons.
The Bison have had some growing pains since joining NCAA Division II, but on Saturday afternoon, as the Bison honored three seniors in pregame, Coach Eaker and his squad celebrated a tremendous milestone, winning their 20th game of the season for the first time since 2012-13 as they defeated Southern Arkansas on Senior Day, 69-63.
Prior to tip, OBU honored
Rashad Lewis,
Dishon Lowery, and
Caleb Norris as they all played in their final game inside the Noble Complex, all earning the starting nod on Saturday.
Lewis opened the game with a 3-pointer for the early lead. After a lay-up from
Harrison Stoddart, Norris knocked down a triple from the corner while
Brantly Thompson followed with a tre of his own to give OBU a red-hot 11-2 lead early in the first four minutes.
As the game began to settle in, Southern Arkansas found a lot of success from the 3-point line, chipping the lead back down 15-14 before
Jarius Hicklen knocked down a 3-pointer. Back-to-back lay ins from
Mohammed Abubakar and a jumper from Lewis pushed the lead out to 24-17.
SAU responded with a 10-0 run to push ahead 27-24 before back-to-back 3-pointers from Thompson pushed the lead back to 30-27 in favor of OBU. The Muleriders closed with the final seven points of the half as they took a 34-30 lead at the break.
The Bison worked fast out of the gate as Lewis knocked down a 3-pointer followed by five straight points from Stoddart including a deep ball to move the Bison ahead 38-35.
Jaquan Simms got going with five straight points of his own to push the lead to six in the first five minutes of the second half.
Southern Arkansas closed the gap to one before a ferocious dunk by Lowery that resulted in a 3-point play ignited the crowd. Lewis followed with a triple on the next possession and the Bison held a 49-42 lead.
SAU responded again with a 9-1 run to push back ahead, but Thompson buried another triple to put OBU back ahead. Lowery added free throws before Simms buired another 3-pointer. After another stop, a beautiful dish by Lowery found Stoddart who flushed it home to get the lead to nine at 60-51.
OBU maintained that lead with a little over two minutes to go in the contest, but Southern Arkansas hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the OBU back down to three. From there, it was free throws and a massive breakaway dunk from Lowery to finish the game off and give the Bison the 69-63 win.
Lewis scored 18 points to go with five assists and three 3-pointers on the night while Stoddart scored 13 to go with eight boards. Thompson came off the bench on this day and scored 12 to go with six assists while Simms had nine points and five assists to go with three boards. Lowery scored seven points to go wth seven rebounds.
The Bison shot 23 of 53 (43%) from the field and 12 of 30 (40%) from behind the arc while holding the Mulerides to 23 of 58 (40%) from the field.
Aaron Lucas led SAU with 18 points while Devante Brooks had 17 points to go with an incredible 23 rebounds.
OBU moves to 20-8 overall and 15-7 in the GAC and locked up the No. 4 seed in the upcoming GAC Tournament. The Bison will head to Bartlesville and take on East Central in the GAC Quarterfinals, a team they split with in the regular season, Tip-off is scheduled for Friday at 12 p.m. from Bruin Gymnasium at Bartlesville High School.
