EDMOND, Okla. - Less than 48 hours removed from dropping a heart breaker at the buzzer to Texas Permian Basin, Oklahoma Christian responded with a tough 61-58 victory over Angelo St. Saturday afternoon inside the Payne Athletic Center. Saturday's win over the Rams marked the program's first ever triumph over ASU, having lost the previous six all-time meetings.
The Eagles (4-5, 1-3 LSC) trailed by six with less than four minutes remaining in the game after seeing a five-minute scoring drought - nearly nine and a half minutes without a field-goal - but turned the tables on the Rams, holding them to just four points across the final four and a half minutes of game play while closing the contest themselves on a 13-4 run.
Keyondre Young (19) and
Bryce Kennedy (18) combined to score 37 of OC's 61 points. Kennedy secured his fourth double-digit scoring outing in the last five games while going 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from the floor along with two free-throws.
Javon Grant, who is now second in the Lone Star Conference with 4.4 assists per game, dished out six dimes to get the Eagle offense going.
Angelo St. opened a seven-point lead quickly out of the gate and saw its best biggest lead of the game at the 8:37 mark, 24-15, before Oklahoma Christian eventually came all the way to take the lead deep in the first half before the Rams went into halftime with the three-point, 32-29, advantage.
The Eagles delivered the game's fourth tie two and a half minutes into second-half action before seeing its biggest lead of the game up to that point, 42-38. with 16:26 on the clock. Oklahoma Christian held that lead for almost six minutes before ASU retook the lead and then some, opening its largest lead of the second half, 54-48, thanks to OC's aforementioned scoring drought.
Marco Foster broke the home team's field-goal drought with his lone three-pointer of the night at the 3:34 mark, cutting the Rams' lead to three, before Grant brought the Eagles within one. Gibson delivered the game's biggest momentum shift of the afternoon with a fast break poster dunk off an Angelo turnover to give OC a lead that moments ago seemed unattainable.
The Eagles defense allowed the maroon-and-gold to continue and build its lead to five, 59-54, with a pair of clutch free-throws from Grant with 30 seconds remaining. Trailing by three in the waning seconds, Angelo's last-second full-court heave fell short as OC claimed its first conference win of the 2024-25 season.
Oklahoma Christian will remain home for one final game in 2024 when in-state conference foe Cameron comes to the Payne Athletic Center Thursday, Dec. 19 at 5 p.m. The Eagles will finish off this current five-game home stand with UT Tyler and No. 15 DBU in the new year.
