SHAWNEE – The Oklahoma Baptist men's basketball team (19-7, 16-4 GAC) will face their biggest battles of the year this weekend, traveling down to play Southeastern Oklahoma State on Friday and East Central on Saturday.
Tomorrow's contest is slated for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off time, while Saturday's game will be played at 7:30 p.m. Game times have been moved around due to severe weather over the last few days.
The game with the Savage Storm will be streamed on GoSoutheastern.com, while the ECU contest can be watched on ECUTigers.com. Both games will be heard on the Bison Sports Network featuring Todd Miller on play-by-play and Scott Wanish on color commentary.
Friday' night's victor will likely take the Great American Conference Regular Season Championship and hold the No. 1 seed going into the tournament next weekend. After a SEOSU victory on Tuesday, the Savage Storm earned first-place rights in the league, holding the tie-breaker over Oklahoma Baptist.
OBU was tabbed No. 8 in the NCAA Central Region Rankings yesterday, while Southeastern checked in at No. 6. having moved up from No. 7 last week. The Bison and the Savage Storm are the only GAC affiliates mentioned in this week's poll after Southern Nazarene dropped after premiering at the No. 8 slot. There will be one more release of the rankings, with the final standings set to come out Sunday, March 6 at 9:30 p.m. when announcing the 64-team field for the NCAA Tournament.
Oklahoma Baptist is coming off a 76-72 win over Southern Arkansas on Saturday, where a 38-point showing from Burke Putnam steered the Bison to their 10th straight home victory.
Putnam's campaign for conference player of the year is likely solidified after his performances through three games last week. Putnam averaged 26.6 points and shot 53.7 percent from the field, including a 20-22 showing at the free-throw line. Additionally, Putnam recorded zero turnovers in the three contests. This earned th senior Great American Conference Co-Player of the Week honors for the fifth time this season. This Tulsa native becomes the second male GAC basketball athlete to record at least five player of the week honors in the same season in league history. Furthermore, Putnam has earned the award more times than any other conference basketball player this season, male or female.
Brantly Thompson and Harrison Stoddart continue to climb the scoring ranks of OBU's illustrious hoops history. Stoddart leads the duo with 1,418 career points, good for 11th all-time in the Bison record books. Additionally, he is fourth in blocks (159) and seventh for career free-throw percentage (81.3%). Thompson has 1,392 career points, which is 14th all-time. He nears Kyle Tolin's 244 three-point makes in the Bison record books with 237, shooting 35.1 percent from behind the arc. Last week, he reached 500 career field goals and ranks fifth for games played in Oklahoma Hoops history (132).
Scouting the Savage Storm
Southeastern enters Friday on the longest win streak in the conference, having won five straight. The Savage Storm sit atop the conference right now, holding a 16-4 league record and 21-5 overall mark.
The red-hot Savage Storm hit a stride and have not looked back, boasting the top-ranked offense in the league, scoring 86.2 points per game, which is 15th in the nation. Furthermore, they are outscoring their opponents by a plus-12.4 point margin, good for 18th in Division II.
Freshman phenom Ante Brzovic leads SEOSU's scoring attack, averaging a double-double of 17.5 points and 10.5 boards per game. He ranks second in rebounds and third for scoring in the GAC. Additionally, he is one of two players to average a double-double in the league this season. The Savage Storm have five, including Brzovic, in the top-20 for scoring in the conference. Next up is senior Adam Dworksy, who is pouring in 17.4 points per contest and is the active career leader for assists in Division II with 865. Dworksy's 177 assists lead the GAC by a mile this season, averaging 6.8 per contest.
Guard Jett Sternberger averages 16.2 points per game, as is tied in second place on the squad for three-point makes (60) with Kellen Manek. Manek is at 12.9 points per game and ranks second in rebounds (170). Southeastern's success from beyond the arc has been highlighted by senior Bobby Johnson, who leads the team with 62 makes. He is shooting 42.8 percent from three-point range and nailing a team-best 55.1 percent of attempts from the floor.
Scouting the Tigers
East Central currently holds a 10-16 overall record, including an 8-12 conference mark. The Tigers will also play on Friday before meeting the Bison on Saturday in Ada.
ECU sits at No. 8 in the conference, fighting for the last spot into the Great American Conference Tournament next weekend. They own the fourth ranked offense in the GAC, scoring 74.0 points per game. Conversely, East Central's defense allows 74.7 points per contest, next to last in the league.
The Tigers scoring attacke is headed by senior Josh Apple, averaging 15.5 points per game, ranking ninth in the league. Shemar Smith follows up with 13.4 per contest and leads the team with a 54.6 percent shooting clip.
Jalen Crutchfield has knocked down a team-best 50 three-pointers, averaging 10.8 points per game, while AJ Frerguson Jr. rounds out the Tigers in double figures at 10.7 per contest.
