SILVER CITY, N.M. (Feb. 8, 2020) – Oklahoma Christian wasted all of a 16-point lead and found itself in a dogfight down the stretch on Saturday afternoon at Western New Mexico, but Johnatan Reyes-Valdez and Will Lienhard made clutch plays to give the Eagles a key road win.

Lienhard's dunk with 23 seconds left and two free throws by Reyes-Valdez with 14 seconds left provided OC with just enough cushion to escape Drag's Court with a 65-63 decision that helped them edge up the tightly packed Lone Star Conference standings.

OC (8-12, 7-9 LSC) moved into 10th place, past Eastern New Mexico, which now is tied with Arkansas-Fort Smith for 11th place at 6-10. The top 12 teams at the end of the regular season will advance to the LSC postseason tournament, and there isn't much wiggle room in the standings. St. Mary's (Texas) won Saturday to improve to 6-11, just a half-game outside the top 12.

Lienhard, a senior center from Oklahoma City, posted his third double-double of the season with 12 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Dedrian Parmer Jr. just missed a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds while Aubrey Johnson scored a team-high 19 points, hitting 5 of 11 3-point attempts for the Eagles.

"All road wins are good wins," OC coach Kendre Talley said. "Western New Mexico was on a two-game winning streak and we caught them while they were hot. We showed a lot of toughness to bounce back after a tough overtime loss Thursday. I couldn't be more proud of the way these guys competed today.

"My only goal for this week was for our guys to be the best teammates that they could be. Through all of the adversity, we grew closer together and pulled it out."

The Eagles sprinted to a 31-15 lead on a 3-pointer by Reyes-Valdez with 7:31 left in the first half and were up 41-26 at halftime, seemingly on their way to an easy win. But the Mustangs scored 16 straight points and took a 46-45 lead on a fast-break layup by Rodney Simon with 10:07 left.

OC trailed for less than a minute before Johnson scored at the 9:35 mark and the Eagles never trailed again, but never again were comfortable, either.

Parmer Jr.'s basket with 2:55 left extended OC's to 60-51, but Western New Mexico made one final push and pulled within 61-59 on a basket by C.J. Vanbeekum with 48 seconds left. Lienhard's dunk – off a feed from Marcus Blackwell – put OC back ahead by four points before Simon scored with 15 seconds left.

The Mustangs quickly fouled Reyes-Valdez and he made both free throws, making it 65-61. Tony Avalos scored for Western New Mexico with 10 seconds left and the Mustangs again fouled Reyes-Valdez. He missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity, but Malik Sanders missed a two-point attempt in the final seconds and Lienhard rebounded to secure the win for OC.

Avalos had 12 points and eight assists for Western New Mexico, while Simon scored 14 points and Elijah Holifield added 12.

After finishing the season's longest road trip, the Eagles will be at home next week to host Angelo State (Texas) on Thursday and Lubbock Christian (Texas) on Saturday.