Will Reinke had 15 points and nine rebounds as OC beat No. 13 John Brown 59-56 in the SAC tournament semifinals.
By Murray Evans
SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. (March 2, 2012) – March arrived and the Oklahoma Christian Eagles suddenly turned on the switch. Now they find themselves headed to the NAIA Division I tournament.
Will Reinke had 15 points and nine rebounds and OC overcame a poor shooting night to beat host and No. 13-ranked John Brown (Ark.) 59-56 in the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament semifinals at Bill George Arena.
Seventh-seeded OC (19-12) will face No. 1-ranked and top-seeded Oklahoma Baptist in Saturday night's SAC tournament title game. OBU beat No. 23 Southern Nazarene 74-70 in the other semifinal. Because the Bison already have earned one of the SAC's automatic berths to the national tournament – courtesy of winning the conference's regular-season title – OC will receive the second automatic bid by virtue of reaching the SAC tournament final.
OC lost a pair of games to OBU this season, but the most recent loss came by a 64-63 count in Shawnee on Jan. 21. The Eagles missed a shot in the final seconds that would have won that game.
The Eagles never have won the SAC tournament since the event began in 1994.
OC is now 4-0 in John Brown's home arena since its opening two seasons ago. The Eagles won by 15 points at John Brown during the regular season but later lost at home to John Brown by 15.
"Well, wow!" OC coach Dan Hays said. "It was a tremendous job defensively all night long. … It was a terrific team effort. Our goal was to come win three (games). I told the guys Saturday night, after we came back from Wayland (Baptist), that we were going to play three games and adjusted our practice schedule accordingly. So far it's paid off.
"It's a great win for our kids. They fought hard. They've fought through adversity time and time again, and now we've got one more. This is our last go-round in the SAC and we hope we can play well tonight, also."
The Eagles shot 33.3 percent (19 of 57) from the field and didn't record a basket during the final 6:13, going 8-for-11 from the free-throw line during that stretch. Still, they led 55-48 after Devan White made two free throws with 4:12 left and third-seeded John Brown (24-7) was not able to cut that margin below three points.
Reinke made two free throws with 1:07 left to extend OC's lead to 59-54. Andy Garcia scored with 58.2 seconds left for John Brown to again make it a three-point game, and John Brown came up with the defensive stop it needed when Garcia blocked a layup attempt by OC's Nick Tate with 24 seconds left.
John Brown coach Clark Sheehy opted not to call a timeout and all the Golden Eagles managed was a deep, arcing 3-point attempt by E.J. McWoods with five seconds left. The shot fell short and the buzzer sounded as a scramble for the rebound ensued.
"We had to keep at least a three-point lead the whole time," Reinke said. "We didn't want to give them the last shot to win the game. Those free throws really helped and our defense played a big role."
John Brown shot 40 percent from the field (20 of 50) but went just 2-of-23 from 3-point range (8.7 percent). The Golden Eagles outrebounded OC 45-35 but also committed 18 turnovers, 10 more than did OC.
John Brown started the game on a 9-0 run as OC failed to score on its first nine possessions. The Eagles answered with a 9-0 run of their own to tie the game, but John Brown scored the next 10 points. OC pulled within 26-24 on Kendre Talley's buzzer-beating 3-pointer just before halftime.
"We knew the shots would start falling," Reinke said. "We were missing some easy ones but we knew we couldn't give up. It was win or go home, so we had to keep fighting and keep clawing. We weren't ever going to give up and we knew that from the very beginning."
OC took its first lead at 29-28 on Brandon Troutman's 3-pointer with 18:46 left. Jared Johnson's basket briefly returned the lead to John Brown, but a three-point play by Reinke with 17:02 left put OC up 32-30 and the Eagles never trailed again.
"We got down early and couldn't make shots, but I really liked our shot selection," Hays said. "Then we just grinded the game out. Coming into the game, the keys were toughness and patience on defense … We had to stay the course, and we did. Secondly, we wanted to take care of the basketball, and we only had eight turnovers, which is terrific. And then we got into our depth, and we had good depth."
A look at the boxscore showed that depth. Reinke was the only OC player to score in double figures, but Tate and Eric Randall each had nine points and five rebounds, Talley had eight points, five assists and four steals and Troutman had seven points while Willie Harper had six.
Garcia led John Brown with 15 points and nine rebounds. McWoods added 10 points but went 0-of-7 from 3-point range.
