DURANT, Okla. - The Oklahoma Baptist men's basketball team won for the first time in Durant in the NCAA Division II era and the first time since 1994 as they rolled past Southeastern Oklahoma State by the score of 82-70 on Saturday afternoon inside Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The Bison shot a season-high 29 of 58 (55%) from the field including a red-hot 17 of 25 (68%) in the second half. OBU was 8 of 23 (35%) from deep and 16 of 24 (67%) from the free throw line.Â
Despite shooting 15 of 38 (40%) from behind the arc, the Savage Storm were only 23 of 65 (35%) from field and 9 of 13 (69%) from the free throw line. The Bison were tremendous taking care of the ball as they only gave it away 11 times while forcing 11 turnovers. The Bison dominated points in the paint 36-12.
OBU was the aggressor in the early going from behind the arc with five 3-pointers in the first five minutes, including three from
Jordan Thompson and two from
Jaquan Simms to take a 15-8 lead.Â
Southeastern stormed back to cut it to two at 16-14, but this time OBU went to work in the paint through
Nigel Wilcox and
Harrison Stoddart as an 8-0 run pushed the lead out to 24-14.
With under three minutes to play in the first half, Stoddart knocked down a hook shot in the paint to become the 49th player in OBU basketball history to score over 1,000 points in his career.
The Savage Storm were able to push it back down to four, but the likes of Wilcox and Thompson gave OBU a 35-28 lead at the break.
OBU came out red hot in the second half as
Brantly Thompson scored 11 points in the first five minutes to give OBU a 16 point lead. The Bison continued to pound the paint with Wilcox and Stoddart and used the hot shooting of Thompson and Simms to take a game-high lead of 22 points at 58-36 with under 12 play.
Southeastern began to heat up from beyond the arc and started to chip into the deficit, even getting it under 10 points a few times later in the half. However, every time the Savage Storm moved closer, the Bison would get a huge bucket on the other end and a few necessary stops to keep a comeback from happening.Â
After a short burst, OBU got the game back out to 14 with under four to play and was able to cruise to victory, taking their second straight road win, 82-70.
Simms scored 18 points to go with six boards and four assists while,Â
Brantly Thompson scored 17 points with seven rebounds and three assists. Wilcox poured in a career day in an OBU uniform with 16 points, seven rebounds, and two blocks, while
Jordan Thompson had 15 points with seven assists to only two turnovers as well as two steals of his own. Stoddart added 13 points and eight boards, while
Trey Green had three points and five boards.
Adam Dworsky led Southeastern with 21 points and six assists, while Bobby Johnson added 14 points.
The Bison move to 3-3 overall and 3-2 in the GAC. They return to action on Monday as they welcome in rival Southern Nazarene for their second meeting of the season and the first inside the Noble Complex. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. in Shawnee and will be carried on the Bison Sports Network.
