SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (6-4, 3-1 GAC) led from start to finish as it handled East Central by an 82-71 count on Saturday night in Great American Conference play.
The green and gold absolutely ravaged the Tigers in the paint. By game's end, the Bison outscored the Tigers 56-38 in the low-block area.
Pacing the way for OBU was
Burke Putnam. He scored 25 to go along with seven rebounds and a game-high five assists.
Nigel Wilcox was solid too, scoring 13 points while hauling in four boards. Rounding out the top scorers,
Brantly Thompson and
Jaquan Simms each tallied nine.
The entire squad aided the Bison. In fact, nine different players scored as OBU hit 35-of-75 (46.7) from the field.
Within the first nine minutes, OBU got out to a 16-6 lead. All of those points, remarkably, came in the paint. There was a Putnam one-handed dunk as well as layups by
Jordan Thompson,
D.J. Freeman and
Justin Tene.
But that good start subsided, and ECU rallied back. The visitors scored the next seven, which was ended by a three-ball from Josh Apple, and trailed by just three, 16-13.
That stretch ended, though, and the Bison got back in gear. With that three-point cushion at the 9:12 mark, the hosts reeled off an 18-3 run. Simms led the way with seven points as OBU went up 34-16 following a Tene layup at 3:28. By half, the Bison led 42-26.
After halftime, the visitors never threatened. And that allowed coach
Jason Eaker to use his bench which ended up outscoring ECU's 32-12.
OBU would go up as many as twenty points (80-60) after a
Legend Barrett layup at 1:17. Barrett, playing for the first time this season, hit all three of his shots as well.
Oklahoma Baptist will return to action on December 30 with a road date against Henderson State at 7:30 p.m.
