SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist got a rather convincing win on Senior Day, defeating East Central 90-78 in its regular-season finale. The Bison improved to 18-10 and earned the No. 4 seed in next week's GAC Tournament.
They will face Henderson State on March 7 at 5:45 p.m. inside Southside Arena at Fort Smith, Arkansas.
On this night, in front of a crowd of 775 people, OBU's offense shined. They committed just five turnovers, watched as
Ricky Brown scored his 1,000th career point and saw six of its players reach double figures.
Early on, ECU hit some shots from deep, namely by Godsgift Ezedinman who buried five 3-pointers during the game. With that, the visitors led 20-12 at the 11:41 mark of the first stanza. However, the Bison started to get in gear just a little bit after that eight-point deficit.
In fact, in the final 10:12 of the first, OBU outscored the Tigers 30-12 and took a 44-32 lead into the break.
Joshua Udoumoh scored eight in the first half while
JC Curry added 10.
After OBU's surge and halftime lead, the hosts allowed the Tigers to get no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Remarkably, ECU hit 15 three-pointers in the game, tying its season-high. However, the turnover battle was the key reason for the Tigers loss. They committed 17 miscues and OBU cashed those in for 28 points. Plus, OBU outscored ECU 42-20 in the paint.
For the Bison they made 52.2 percent overall and 36 percent from deep.
Nathan Wilson had a great outing, securing 19 points and 10 rebounds while
Daniel Ransom added 12 points and six assists. For Brown, he chipped in with 12 points to become the 50th OBU player all-time to reach 1,000 career points and added seven assists.
Rounding out the top contributors for the Bison, Curry scored 17 with four steals, Udoumoh added 15 and
Ethan Scott tallied 11 which included a trio of threes.
