Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (Nov. 13, 2015) – The snowball hit Oklahoma Christian early and quickly turned into an avalanche that buried the Eagles on Friday night against Texas A&M-Commerce.
To their credit, the Eagles made things interesting in the second half, but eventually fell 81-66 in their season opener at the Eagles' Nest in the Heartland-Lone Star Challenge.
OC (0-1) cut a 29-point first-half deficit to 12 points with 5:41 left but TAMUC – which won the Lone Star Conference tournament title and made the NCAA Division II tournament last season – was just too tough.
"Without question, they're a very good team," OC coach
Dan Hays said. "They had some starters back and they had some (Division I) transfers (with) extremely long, big guys that bothered us inside. They were very good. I can't sugarcoat it any more than that.
"For whatever reason, I just don't know why we appeared to be out of sorts. … I was just not a good effort the first 15 minutes. Now, from the five-minute mark of the first half and the whole second half, we actually played much, much better. We can draw a positive from that."
The Eagles' guards fueled the comeback, with
Elijah Strickland scoring 16 points (going 3-of-4 from 3-point range) and
Jordan Box adding 15 points before leaving the game with 2:02 left with an injury. OC's primary wing player,
Jordan Rutherford, added nine points, and so did junior center
John Moon.
OC led 4-3 early in the game before the Lions reeled off a 41-11 run over the next 15-plus minutes. TAMUC (1-0) led 44-15 after Craig Fofang's basket with 3:02 left in the first half. A 12-2 spurt by OC after that pulled the Eagles within 48-27 by halftime.
The Eagles kept chipping away and cut the deficit to 68-56 after a basket by
Chiza Ntirata with 5:41 left, but TAMUC went 9-of-12 from the free-throw line after that to maintain its double-digit lead.
Senior center Ronnie White led five Lions in double figures with 22 points and eight rebounds. Jo'vone Hayes added 15 points while De'Andre Carson had 10 points, six assists and five steals.
The Eagles will host another Lone Star foe, Cameron, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_-EP7GDAPY&feature=em-upload_owner
