Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 8, 2018) – Texas A&M International guard Jeremy Wright played what was likely the best game of his basketball career on Thursday night and Oklahoma Christian was the unfortunate victim.
With the score tied, Wright drilled a well-guarded 3-pointer with 14.6 seconds in overtime to cap a career-high 25-point performance and TAMIU held on for a 72-70 win over the Eagles.
TAMIU (10-13, 3-8 Heartland Conference) moved into the eighth place in the league standings, just a game behind OC (8-14, 4-7). TAMIU is tied with St. Mary's (Texas) for eighth. That battle is critical, as only eight teams (out of nine in the league) qualify for the Heartland's postseason tournament.
A win over TAMIU would have put OC in strong position to qualify. Now, the Eagles still have work to do to secure a postseason berth, starting Saturday afternoon with a home game against St. Mary's.
"It was a tough game," OC coach
Cory Cole said. "We were flat defensively during key stretches. I thought we competed hard in spots, but we were not as tough on the glass as we needed to be, and give TAMIU credit. They had some crucial, critical second-chance opportunities."
Indeed, the Dustdevils outrebounded OC 33-29, and 13 of those TAMIU rebounds came on the offensive end. With its slowdown offense – the Dustdevils rarely took a shot before the shot clock was in single digits, and usually waiting until the final five seconds of that clock – those offensive rebounds proved invaluable. TAMIU was able to take 14 more shots than did OC, a huge difference in a game decided by one possession.
OC lost despite strong performances from guards
Elijah Strickland (21 points) and
Jordan Box (20 points). The duo combined to go 8 of 16 from 3-point range.
"Elijah and Jordan continue to be one of the top backcourts in the conference," Cole said. "They were dialed in and played well on both ends tonight."
OC led the game for more than 30 minutes, but never by more than eight points. The Eagles were up 33-30 at halftime but TAMIU seized control in the late stages of regulation and OC had to scramble.
A 3-pointer by Danny Spinuzza gave the Dustdevils a 55-51 lead with 4:43 left in regulation. OC pulled even at 57-57 on a layup by
Jordan Box with 1:31 left, but Brendan Ortiz hit a 3-pointer with 1:04 left and TAMIU led 61-57 after a free throw by Wright with 25.5 seconds left.
A foul on Wright's second free throw gave
Roderick Smith two free throws at the other end, and he made them to pull OC within 61-59. After Xabier Gomez missed two free throws with 23 seconds left,
Elijah Strickland went 1 of 2 for the Eagles with 22.1 seconds left. Kamari Robinson went 1 of 2 from the line for TAMIU with 15.6 seconds left, making it 62-60.
With the TAMIU defense collapsing on Strickland in the final seconds, he dished to
Miroslav Jaksic for an easy dunk with 2.1 seconds left, forcing overtime.
Jaksic started overtime with a three-point play, but Ortiz's 3-pointer with 3:37 left put TAMIU ahead 67-65 and the Dustdevils never trailed again. Strickland tied the game with 1:33 left before Wright's big 3-pointer. After that, the Dustdevils deliberately fouled Box and Strickland, trying to keep either of them from attempting a potential tying 3-pointer.
With 2.5 seconds left and OC trailing 72-69, Strickland made one free throw and deliberately missed a second, hoping for an OC teammate to rebound and score on a put-back, but instead Jaksic was called for a foul.
In addition to his 25 points, Wright added five steals and five assists for TAMIU. Ortiz scored 17 points and Robinson had 14 points and seven rebounds.
For OC, forward
Roderick Smith had 12 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season.
