Eagles ‘reeling’ after losses and player’s season-ending injury

The Eagles basketball team is shaking off the dust and assessing the damage after shouldering two heavy losses in its first NCAA Division II tournament.

Oklahoma Christian University hosted Texas A&M University-Commerce on Friday and Cameron University on Saturday at its season opening tournament, suffering double-digit losses in both games and losing one key player to a season-ending injury.

The Eagles stumbled in the first half of Friday’s game with Texas A&M University-Commerce, trailing 48-27. The team made a slight comeback, though, and recorded 39 points to the Lions’ 33 in the second half. The effort was not enough and the Lions took the 81-66 victory.

With approximately 2 minutes remaining in the game, sophomore Jordan Box left the game with an injury.

“Looks like Jordan Box tore his ACL and looks like he’s done for the year,” Men’s Basketball Head Coach Dan Hays said. “We’re reeling, to be honest.”

Box scored 15 points with three assists and one steal before exiting the game.

Elijah Strickland led the Eagles’ scoring with 16 points and recorded five rebounds in his 33 minutes of playing time – the most of any Eagle on the court Friday night.

Oklahoma Christian’s main center, John Moon, fouled out of the game after 28 minutes on the court, but not before he took seven rebounds and added nine points on the board.

The team shot 33.9 percent during the night and recorded 22 fouls.

Unlike Friday’s performance, Hays said the team started with promise on Saturday.

“We played a good first 30 minutes and then got into foul trouble,” Hays said. “Got beat by a good team.”

The Eagles, feeling the effects of missing a valuable player, fell 83-67 to Cameron University.

Jordan Rutherford stepped up to lead the scoring with 16 points, followed closely by Strickland’s 13, in addition to Cameron Peters’ and Moon’s nine contributing points each.

The team increased its shooting percentage from the previous night – up to 48.1 percent – and lowered its foul count to 19, despite the “foul trouble” in the first half.

Hays said the season will prove challenging as the team has now fully transitioned into the NCAA.

“It’s tougher, no doubt about it – it’s not easy,” Hays said. “But it was a long weekend, not what we expected. We knew these teams were good but we thought we were better than we are. We thought we could play better – and we can.”

Oklahoma Christian hosts the University of Central Oklahoma on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

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