Oklahoma Christian University Men’s Basketball Head Coach Dan Hays inspired determination among his team before taking to the court Saturday afternoon. The team then rallied together to beat the No. 1-ranked Heartland Conference contender, Texas A&M International University, 61-60.
“I told them last night, I said, ‘we’re going to win’ and I said ‘jump on board that train if you want to,’” Hays said. “They did and we played a great defensive game. Our post defense from our four post guys was fantastic.”
The Eagles led the game 34-29 after the first half. The second half proved more difficult as the Dustdevils scored an additional 31 points to the Eagles’ 27, but Oklahoma Christian remained in control to achieve its one-point victory.
Prior to Saturday’s win, the Eagles suffered from an eight-game losing streak and stood tied for last place in the conference. With nine games left in the season, Hays said the team chose to turn the tides.
“Well I think we just made up our minds, changed our mindset a little bit,” Hays said. “And whatever mindset we had we weren’t’ getting it done. We’re going to start winning and find a way and we did today.”
John Moon continued to lead the Eagles through another game with 23 points and six rebounds. Elijah Strickland added 10 points to the board and recorded five assists and two steals.
Jordan Rutherford and Deric Shelton scored eight and seven points, respectively, along with pulling down a combined eight rebounds.
Oklahoma Christian recorded a 58.5 shooting percentage inside the arc and 63.6 percent from the charity stripe, compared to TAMIU’s 43.1 percent and 69.2 percent, respectively.
Hays said the team has “been playing well, just haven’t been winning. We got determined and we will start winning.”
The Eagles host Lubbock Christian University on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Statistics provided by the Oklahoma Christian University Sports Information office.
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