OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 14, 2021) – For about 26 minutes and change on Thursday, Oklahoma Christian's young flock of Eagles hung with a top-15 basketball team in NCAA Division II. But eventually, Dallas Baptist (Texas) wore down the Eagles with their hot shooting.
Junior guard Carson Hughes scored a career-high 36 points – missing only one shot along the way – and senior guard Chandler Jacobs added 32 as the Patriots downed OC 90-79 in the Eagles' Nest in the first game of a home-and-home series this week.
No. 15-ranked Dallas Baptist (6-1, 6-1 Lone Star Conference) shot a sizzling 59.6 percent (34 of 57) from the field, including 63 percent (17 of 27) after halftime. Hughes, who entered the game 4 of 19 this season from 3-point range, was the ringleader. He hit 6 of 7 3-point attempts and 11 of 12 shots overall and went 8 of 8 from the free-throw line while posting the second-highest single-game point total this season among LSC players.
Jacobs, who came in as the LSC's second-leading scorer, made 13 of 20 shots and tied for the fourth-best single-game scoring performance in the league this season. Those two monster performances offset an off night by DBU's star freshman guard, Ricky Lujan, who scored only five points, more than 15 below his average.
"You've got to love the game of basketball," OC coach
Kendre Talley said. "That's how it is. We did what we wanted to do with the guys. Chandler Jacobs is a great player and he's going to do what he's going to do. But we did a really good job with the rest of those guys and Hughes stepped up for them today. That's what it takes sometimes is for a player to step up and make plays."
OC freshman
Nyk Madison paced the Eagles with 22 points, going 10 of 16 from the field, and
Donovan Reagan added 15 points and seven rebounds, but the Eagles simply couldn't match DBU's firepower.
"We just started missing shots," Talley said. "We got what we wanted. The guys played well. I was happy about our performance, playing against a nationally ranked team. These young guys, they got a feel of it. They responded, for the most part. The score didn't indicate how the game was. The score was close the whole way. I'm proud of the way that they played."
Dallas Baptist jumped to a 16-5 lead in the first five minutes, but OC (1-6, 1-6) didn't panic and slowly worked its way back into the game. Madison capped a 16-6 run with a free throw that put the Eagles ahead 39-38 with 2:20 left in the first half before the Patriots took a 42-39 halftime lead.
Madison tied the game at 49-49 with a dunk with 16:23 left, but Jacobs answered with a three-point play moments later to put DBU up for good. OC was within 58-56 after a 3-pointer by
D.J. Walter with 12:03 left before the Patriots scored nine straight points. The Eagles came no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Another freshman,
Marco Foster, added 14 points for OC and the Eagles did outrebound Dallas Baptist 38-31. OC shot 41.8 percent (28 of 67) from the field.
DBU won despite the absence of its coach, Blake Flickner. Ryan Glenney served as the Patriots' acting head coach against OC. Despite the loss, the Eagles still lead the all-time series against Dallas Baptist 21-20.
The Eagles will travel to Dallas on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game at DBU's Burg Center, then will head south down Interstate 35 to Laredo, Texas, for games Monday and Tuesday at Texas A&M International.
"We did some stuff really well early on defensively," Talley said. "They made some adjustments that we'll have to adjust to for the next game. But we'll get better at it. Hopefully we can continue to get going offensively. … We'll prepare and we'll go down (to Dallas) looking for a win Saturday."
