SHAWNEE – The red hot Bison take their three-game winning streak over state lines for a couple of meetings with GAC foes Harding and Arkansas Tech. Oklahoma Baptist will face HU tonight at 7:30 p.m. before closing the weekend on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in Russellville.
The Bison Sports Network's Todd Miller and Scott Wanish will be on site for the call of the games.
LAST TIME THEY MET
OBU blasted Harding 84-60 on Jan. 13 in Shawnee, its largest conference victory this season, and fell 68-65 at the buzzer to Arkansas Tech. All time, the Bison are 11-6 against HU and 10-9 versus the Wonder Boys. Oklahoma Baptist has beatEN Harding three consecutive times, while HU has only defeated the green and gold once since 2018.
The victory over Harding saw five different players reach double figures in scoring. Oklahoma Baptist feasted on both ends of the court, scoring more than half of its points (46) down low in the painted area while charting 11 steals, the fourth-most takeaways in a game this year. The Bison scored 24 points off HU's miscues, including 13 in the first half and charted 22 second-chance points while boasting a 54-34 margin in rebounds. OBU also limited Harding to a 33.3 percent shooting mark, still the best this season.
Ricky Brown paced the Bison with 15 points and five triples, while Joshua Udoumoh and Nathan Wilson recorded double-doubles. Udoumoh paired 14 points with 10 boards, while Wilson had 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Daniel Ransom and Trevin Wade rounded out the bunch with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Ransom added eight rebounds, while Wade charted five boards and three steals.
Arkansas Tech sunk a three-pointer with five seconds remaining to escape the Bison on Jan. 11. ATU, who came into the game on a 10-game winning streak, would see its streak fall two days later at Southern Nazarene.
Oklahoma Baptist netted one field goal in the game's last three minutes while the Wonder Boys finished on an 11-5 run. Still, OBU nearly tied ATU with a pull-up jumper from Terry Coner Jr. with 23 seconds remaining that would've forced overtime.
Brown and Udoumoh led the Bison with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Coner poured in 12 points, highlighted by six makes at the free throw line, while Wilson grabbed 10 boards and scored eight points. Also of note was freshman Efe Sekeroglu's seven points, his highest total against a conference opponent.
TURNING THE TIDE
Oklahoma Baptist has flipped the script during its winning streak. Before a gritty 74-65 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State sparked the run, the Bison had lost five of its previous six games. In fact, every loss had come by five points or less. Since then, Oklahoma Baptist has win margins of plus-9 (SWOSU), plus-13 (HSU), and plus-7 (OUA). Furthermore, OBU has beaten league opponents by double digits in five of its seven GAC victories.
The current conference win streak is the longest for Oklahoma Baptist since last season, when they won four straight from Jan. 7 (OUA) to Jan. 19 (SWOSU).
OBU has averaged 74.7 points per contest in the last three games,, considerably more than its 64.7 points per game rate during the three consecutive losses. They also saw an increase in second-half scoring, charting a 14-point improvement (110-124) through the streak. Here is a closer look at where the Bison made positive leaps in other categories: forced turnovers (33-55), steals (19-33), and free throw percentage (72.2%-80.8%).
Oklahoma Baptist has netted 55-of-68 at the charity stripe since beginning the run at Southwestern, 29 more makes than it had in the three games before.
The leader throughout OBU's much-needed sprint has been Daniel Ransom, who is averaging 15.7 points per game on 50.0 percent shooting. He also recorded the most free throws (17-21) and pulled down the second-most rebounds (19).
Last week, Ransom posted back-to-back 18-point games, highlighted by a 10-of-11 showing at the free throw line in Saturday's win against Ouachita Baptist.
Trailing in close second is Ricky Brown at 15.0 points per game. Brown netted 11 triples at a team-best 40.7 percent shooting rate and shot a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. He has only committed one turnover during the last three contests.
MR. ONE THOUSAND AND MORE
Trevin Wade eclipsed the 1,000-point career benchmark after a 15-point outing versus Ouachita. Wade needed eight points to reach the figure and now totals 1,007 points, the most of any active Bison.
The veteran guard has also been a menace when it comes to collecting steals. During OBU's streak, Wade had 18 steals (6.0/gm), highlighted by a record-breaking performance at Southwestern Oklahoma State, where he came away with seven. Last week, he poked OUT five steals against Henderson before adding six more versus Ouachita. Now, Wade owns the top two spots for steals in a game in OBU's Division II era. All others mentioned in the conversation have no more than five in a contest.
Wade ranks third in the GAC in total steals (37) and second for steals per game (2.06). The sum is already more than any Bison from last season and the third-most since the program made the jump to Division II. Only Burke Putnam (40) and Rashad Lewis (38) recorded more in a year, marks Wade could surpass with eight guaranteed games remaining.
SCOUTING HARDING
Harding has an overall record of 9-11 with a 6-8 mark against GAC opponents, good for a tie at seventh place in the latest conference standings. HU lost 87-99 in their last outing at Southeastern Oklahoma State, breaking its two-game winning streak.
Harding is the fourth-highest-scoring team in the league, averaging 75.4 points per game while shooting 45.8 percent from the floor. HU nets 15.2 free throws each contest, THE second-most in the conference. Against the Savage Storm, Harding sunk 16-of-17 (94.1%) at the charity stripe, a season-high percentage (min. of 15 attempts) this year.
Sophomore guard Rylie Marshall is the leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, the ninth-best average in the GAC. Marshall shoots a team-high 42.1 percent from beyond the arc and has 51 threes.
Guards Keyln McBride and Sam Henderson score 11.5 and 10.9 points per contest, respectively. McBride heads the duo with 36 three-point makes and a team-best 78 assists, while Henderson has tallied 76 rebounds.
Three others average double figures for Harding: Sam Smith (10.6 ppg), Brahm Harris (10.2 ppg), and Abou Gbane (10.0 ppg).
SCOUTING ARKANSAS TECH
The Wonder Boys of Arkansas Tech, who have held the No. 1 spot in the GAC all season, boast a 15-5 record and 11-3 conference tally. Their only losses are to Southeastern (66-70), Northwestern Oklahoma State (54-63), and Southern Nazarene (77-78).
ATU is home to the best scoring defense in the league, allowing 66.1 points per game. Nationally, the figure ranks 16th. They also lead the conference with 78 blocked shots, a rate of 3.9 per game. Offensively, the Wonder Boys score 75.0 points per contest and shoot the sixth-best three-point percentage in the country (40.3%). Tech averages 9.0 triples per game.
Taelon Peter is the high-point man at 19.8 points per game. Peter pairs a 52.1 percent field goal mark with a blistering 45.2 percent success rate from deep. He is 23-of-25 from beyond the arc in the last four games, including three without a single miss.
Other notables are Cassius Brooks' and Tommy Kamarad's averages of 12.7 and 12.6 points per game, respectively.
