Box score
SHAWNEE, Okla. (Dec. 6, 2008) – No. 15 Oklahoma Christian University erupted for a 35-6 second-half run to make a once-competitive game with St. Gregory's University a 70-44 runaway on Saturday night.
The victory improves the Eagles to 9-1 on the season and 3-0 in Sooner Athletic Conference play. St. Gregory's remained winless at 0-7 and 0-2. OC beat SGU for the 15th-straight time and improved to 19-3 in the all-time series.
"It was just making shots on the big run," OC head coach Dan Hays said. "We tried some different alignments, but we hadn't played against a zone all year long. So once Jackson, Tefft and Taylor got going, it was just really a good game from us."
Taylor set a season-high with 28 points on 11-of-12 shooting. The Eagles were 17-of-25 (68 percent) in the second half alone and 26-of-49 (53 percent) for the game
The Eagles didn't lead on Saturday until the 13:13 point when Chad Endres hit a three pointer at the top of the key to make it 7-5. OC never trailed again, but failed to construct any lead larger than six points in the opening half.
The Eagles led by six at the 8:30 mark after a Jeff Crocker trey (19-13), and at 3:18 after one Taylor foul shot (24-18). But OC didn't score again in the half and SGU cut the margin to 24-21 thanks to a Josh Coulter triple with 37 seconds remaining.
The Eagles forced 15 first-half Cavalier turnovers, but committed 11 of their own. Taylor had 11 points at intermission.
OC went up six points again just 13 seconds in the second half with a three from David Jackson. But SGU responded with a 10-1 rally to take its first lead since early in the first half. Coulter scored in the lane at the 17:01, 16:27 and 15:49 marks to give the Cavs a 31-28 advantage.
SGU led 38-33 when Tyler Lluko nailed a three in the corner at 12:44, but the Eagles' big run took flight from there and put the game out of reach.
Taylor scored a two-hand dunk off a Crocker dish at 12:08, then a conventional three pointer at 11:22 to tie it at 38-38.
The All-American then stole a SGU pass and took the ball coast-to-coast to give the Eagles the lead at 40-38 with 10:56 left. That play was followed by another steal-and-score from Chad Endres, upping the lead to 42-38. When David Jackson buried threes on consecutive trips, OC's lead swelled to 48-38.
Taylor dunked in transition at 7:45, Endres scored off the window at 6:40 and Jackson finally completed the rally with an acrobatic fast-break layup at 6:07 to make it 54-38 OC.
After Coulter hit a jumper with 5:46 remaining, the Eagles continued their hot shooting with a 12-0 spurt. When the dust cleared, OC had outscored SGU 35-6 in the final 12 minutes of the game.
Endres was 6-of-9 from the field and 2-of-3 from three-point distance for 14 points. Jackson also got into double-figures with 11 points. Tefft notched eight points, five assists and six steals.
The Eagles are done with SAC games until after Christmas break. OC plays Langston University (Okla.) at 8 p.m. on Dec. 12th to round out the 2008 portion of the schedule.
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