SHAWNEE – Kalifa Ford turned in another outstanding performance as Oklahoma Baptist defeated Henderson State 79-68 on Saturday afternoon in Great American Conference play at the Noble Complex.
With the win, the Bison improved to 12-8 overall and 8-6 in the GAC, tying for the most conference wins since becoming a full member of NCAA DII in 2017-18. Additionally, OBU snapped HSU's seven-game winning streak in the series and moved into fourth place in the GAC.
Ford notched another double-double, this time scoring 27 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. The junior also made 9-of-12 at the foul line. Plus,
Madison Chambers provided a big lift notching a career-high 13 points. Chambers was perfect from downtown (3-3) as well.
Rounding out the Bison's top performers were
Jaylin Stapleton and
Mallory Lockhart, both of whom contributed nine points and four assists.
The first quarter was extremely close with the biggest lead coming at five. That came a little over two minutes in when Ford converted an and-one along the left side making the tally 7-2. A few sequences later, Henderson's Macy Mains converted a three to put the Reddies up 10-9. But by the end of the stanza, the Bison had regained the lead and held a 21-17 advantage after a three-ball from Stapleton.
In the second, the Bison stayed in front the entire time. At one point, Chambers swished through a three from the wing to move OBU's lead to 34-25. By quarter's end, though, HSU rallied to pull within four, 38-34.
After the break, the green and gold pulled away. At 7:04, Mains scored a layup which moved the scoreboard to 48-41 Bison. Over the rest of the third, the Bison didn't allow a single field goal to the visitors. In fact, the Reddies missed all nine of their attempts and made just two free throws.
For the Bison, they ended the quarter with another three, this time from
Kendall Parker with 35 ticks left. That shot had OBU up 56-43.
Fourth-quarter action was virtually dead-even with HSU holding a slight 25-23 points advantage. However, the Bison never relinquished their lead.
By game's end, OBU had hit 78.9 percent from the foul line, 45 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from downtown.
Next on the schedule for OBU is another crucial home game, this time against Southern Nazarene, the third-place team in the GAC. That matchup comes on Feb. 3 at 5:30 p.m.
