SHAWNEE – Tonight is a make-it-or-break opportunity for the Oklahoma Baptist basketball team, who will look to make a final push for the Great American Conference tournament in a 7:30 p.m. matchup against Southeastern Oklahoma State at home. On Saturday, the Bison will conclude its regular season on the road at East Central. Tip-off is set for 3:00 p.m. at the Kerr Activities Center.
The Bison Sports Network's Todd Miller and Scott Wanish will be on the call for both games.
OPENING TIP OFF
OBU holds an 11-15 overall record and an 8-12 mark in GAC play. The Bison are tied for eighth alongside East Central and Southern Arkansas. SAU swept the season series with Oklahoma Baptist, while ECU won the year's first matchup in Shawnee in December.
BACK ON TRACK
Oklahoma Baptist pulled out a much-needed victory last Saturday, defeating Arkansas Monticello 66-61 to snap its five-game skid. UAM came within two points under the one-minute mark in the closing period, but Ricky Brown put in a layup and sank two free throws to guide OBU to the promised land.
The Bison shot just over 41.0 percent from the field and posted statistical advantages in rebounds (41-30) and points in the paint (30-24). OBU also hit 15 free throws, the most since Feb. 3. More importantly, the Bison held the GAC's highest scoring duo, Isaac Jackson and Zane Nelson, below their nightly average. Jackson and Nelson came into the game averaging 20.8 and 19.3 ppg, respectively.
Daniel Ransom paced Oklahoma Baptist with 17 points, six rebounds, and two assists. Ransom recorded a team-high in free throw makes (5), and knocked down 2-of-3 from beyond the arc. Brown and Trevin Wade scored 14 and 12 points, respectively. Joshua Udoumoh nearly earned a double-double, pairing 10 points with nine rebounds, while Nathan Wilson grabbed 13 boards. It was the third-most rebounds Wilson has collected in a game this season.
The triumph put the Bison back on track to punch their ticket to the tournament, an event they have yet to miss under the direction of head coach Jason Eaker.
THE LAST TIME THEY MET
Southeastern prevailed 92-87 in the club's first meeting of the season back on December 9. Despite shooting 59.0 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from the deep, OBU couldn't tame a 48-point second half from the Savage Storm.
SE improved its shooting clip from 46.8 to 53.8 percent in the closing period, while OBU's dropped from 63.3 to 54.4 percent.
Another glaring stat from the matchup was that SE attempted 26 free throws while Oklahoma Baptist only registered 10 tries. Southeastern sunk 88.5 percent (23-26) of those shots, their best percentage from the charity stripe against a conference opponent this season. Meanwhile, the Bison finished 7-of-10, their fourth-least amount of makes this year.
Terry Coner Jr. paced OBU with 18 points, including a 4-for-6 outing from downtown. Wade chimed in 15 points and nine assists, while Brown scored 12 points. Udoumoh rounded out the Bison's double-digit scorers with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
East Central put in a layup with 0.1 seconds remaining before sinking a go-ahead free throw to stun Oklahoma Baptist 84-83 in the year's first matchup. With a minute left in the final stanza, ECU clawed out of a seven-point deficit on a 7-3 run, while OBU didn't record a field-goal attempt. The Bison made free throws, but a foul before the buzzer sent the Tigers to the line for the game-sealer.
Oklahoma Baptist also shot lights out in the contest, turning in a 57.7 percent field-goal mark to go along with 14 triples (53.8%). It's still the most three-point makes in a game by OBU this season. Six threes came from Coner, who finished the game with 33 points, the highest output from a freshman in the program's DII era. Wade and Brown contributed 16 and 14 points, respectively.
SENIOR APPRECIATION
OBU will honor seniors Legend Barrett and Wade ahead of tonight's game. Wade, a 5-foot-10 guard from Marietta, Ga., has excelled in his only season with the Bison. He owns the third-best scoring average on the team (12.2 ppg) and has reached double figures in all but four games. Wade also broke the program's DII single-season record for steals a couple of weeks ago with 46 thus far, eclipsing Burke Putnam's mark (40) set back in 2022. That total is second in the conference, an average of 1.9 per game.
Wade has compiled 1,081 points (8.8 ppg), 333 assists, and 162 steals in 122 career collegiate games.
Barrett, a 6-foot-5 forward from Mansfield, Texas, has spent the last three seasons on Bison Hill. He has drawn seven starts in 35 career games and scored 52 total points. Barrett posted career highs in points (10) and rebounds (8) against Arlington Baptist earlier this year. Barrett played his freshman season at Texas College, where he averaged 7.6 ppg on 53.8 percent shooting in 28 games.
SCOUTING SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA STATE
Southeastern Oklahoma State has won 11 straight games and sits atop the Great American Conference standings with a 21-7 overall record and a 17-3 mark in GAC play. The Savage Storm were ranked 10th in the NCAA's first edition of the Central Region rankings this week.
SE paces the GAC in offensive scoring (85.7 ppg), three-pointers per game (10.6), free throws made per game (15.4), assists per game (16.4), and field goal percentage (49.1%). They've scored over 80 points in four straight games, including back-to-back 90-point outputs last week. Defensively, Southeastern allows the third-most points per game (77.8).
Southeastern is led on offense by the reigning GAC Player of the Week, Kody Clouet, who is putting up 18.2 ppg on the year while shooting 50.6 percent overall from the field and 43.6 percent from three-point range. He is also the team's top rebounder at 5.0 rpg.
Brennen Burns is next in line with 15.8 ppg and is the GAC leader in assists with 6.8 per outing while also chipping in 3.9 rebounds per game. Additionally, Burns ranks second in the country with 191 total assists. Jett Sternberger is averaging 13.9 ppg on the year, while Kyle Leslie rounds out the double-digit scorers with 11.8 per outing.
SCOUTING EAST CENTRAL
East Central is 12-14 this year and shares the same conference record of 8-12 with OBU. The Tigers split last week's action in Arkadelphia, drawing an 89-86 loss against Henderson State before defeating Ouachita Baptist 76-69 on Saturday.
ECU scores 69.0 points per game, the third-worst scoring average in the GAC, while shooting 46.2 percent from the floor as a squad. The Tigers boast the third-best scoring defense in the league at 70.3 points allowed per contest, but own a negative 1.3 scoring margin.
Keyon Thomas is the club's high-point man at 13.8 ppg. Thomas shoots 44.1 percent from the floor and 34.2 percent from beyond the arc. He adds the most steals (35) and assists (92) for ECU and is a 79.8 percent (71-89) free throw shooter.
Godsgift Ezedinma, a 6-foot-6 guard, is next with a 12.3 ppg output. He leads the team in three pointers (47) and has grabbed the third-most rebounds (103) thus far. Bryce Woolridge pairs the most boards (123) with a 9.8 ppg average. Woolridge has also been the most effective from deep, totaling 38 with a 48.7 percent shooting rate.
ECU has weapons in Nikk William, who scores 8.5 ppg and has the second-most blocks (16), and Jaden Miller, who is the squad's second-best distributor with 76 assists.
