SHAWNEE – Senior Nigel Wilcox led a trio of Bison double-figure scorers to a 91-70 win over MidAmerica Nazarene (10-4, 5-2 HEART) inside the Noble Complex on Monday afternoon.
Wilcox turned in a career-high 19 points on 7-11 shooting to steer Oklahoma Baptist past a feisty MidAmerica squad that gave the home team everything they could handle.
Ricky Brown and D.J. Freeman chimed in 11 and 10 points, respectively. Three triples highlighted Brown's night, while Freeman went a perfect 3-3 from the floor.
OBU shot 50.7% for the game after improving from a 40% to 61.1% field goal percentage in the closing half. The Bison's second-half lead reached as far as 27 points late.
Meanwhile, the Pioneers dropped its field goal mark from 50% in the opening half to 46.2% to close the game with a 48.1% shooting percentage.
Oklahoma Baptist dominated in the painted area, finishing with a 52-32 advantage in points in the paint and a 47-23 margin in rebounds. The Bison brought down 20 offensive rebounds to the opposition's six.
However, the stat of the night came from OBU's reserves. The bench racked up over 50% of the team's sum, led by Caleb Riggs' seven points. Teammates Bradley Akhile, Ethan Scott, and Joshua Udoumoh charted six points apiece.
The Bison jumped out to an 18-9 lead before the Pioneers mounted a 10-3 run to cut its deficit to four, 21-17, with 10 minutes left. OBU's advantage reached 10 with a little over six minutes remaining, but MNU narrowed the gap to five in the dwindling minutes of the first half.
Still, Oklahoma Baptist held the reigns and walked into the locker room with a 42-35 lead.
MNU climbed to trail by just four at the 17:58 mark in the second, but a determined Bison bunch pressed on to victory with a cluster of shots to capture the Monday night triumph.
Tonight's victory moves Oklahoma Baptist to 6-4 overall, as they'll return to GAC play on Thursday against Henderson State (6-4, 3-1 GAC). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside the Noble Complex.
