Box Score WICHITA, Kan. (Feb. 12, 2015) – Four Oklahoma Christian players reached double figures in scoring on Thursday night at Newman (Kan.). But the Eagles ran up against a hot offensive team that had six double-figure scorers, committed only five turnovers and knocked down 13 3-pointers.
The math added up to a 100-76 win for Newman over the Eagles inside Fugate Gymnasium, as OC wasn't able to sustain the momentum from a road romp five days earlier at Oklahoma Panhandle State.
Ever-steady OC sophomore center
John Moon again was dominant inside, with 24 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. Freshman guard
Elijah Strickland was slowed by foul trouble for much of the game but still scored 14 points on 4-of-7 3-point shooting and grabbed eight rebounds.
Jordan Box (13 points) and
Eric Randall (10 points, eight rebounds) also contributed offensively for OC, which shot a respectable 48.3 percent from the field (28 of 58).
But Newman's ability to take care of the basketball helped the Jets take 24 more shots than did OC (4-17, 2-13 Heartland Conference). Newman shot 47.6 percent (39 of 82) and made 13 3-point shots in 37 attempts, a 35.1-percent clip.
Reggie Baker did most of the damage for Newman (12-9, 8-7), pouring in 30 points on 10-of-21 shooting, including a 6-of-14 effort from behind the arc.
"They really played well," OC coach
Dan Hays said of the Jets. "They were ready to play. I thought we were prepared. We weren't. What we were trying to defensively obviously didn't work. I thought we were in good shape until
Elijah Strickland got into foul trouble. He's really doing a terrific job at the point and when he picked up those three fouls … that really put us behind the eight ball.
"We couldn't keep them out of transition. That was our No. 1 goal in the game."
OC's only lead came in the opening moments, as the Eagles found success pounding the ball inside to Moon, who scored their first three baskets. But Newman soon began rolling offensively and closed the first half with three 3-pointers in the final 2:35 to take a 51-34 lead.
The Eagles pulled within 15 early in the second half but weren't able to make a sustained run.
"We were OK on offense," Hays said. "The second half, we actually were pretty good. They backed off the pressure a little bit, but they were just too much for us. We were very average tonight and you can't be average and beat Newman up here."
OC will visit Dallas Baptist (Texas) on Monday before returning home to play league rivals Rogers State next Thursday and Arkansas-Fort Smith next Saturday.
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