Low shooting percentage leads to Eagle loss at UAFS

Despite holding the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Lions to just a 29.6 field-goal percentage, the Oklahoma Christian University men’s basketball team fell 62-56 on Thursday.

Senior John Moon and junior Marcus Mathieu were the only Eagles to score in double figures, both finishing the game with 14 points. Mathieu tied his career-high in scoring and added four assists. Moon recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 11 rebounds against the Lions. Freshman Dorian Lopez added six points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

During the game the Eagles committed 32 fouls, which converted to 27 points for the Lions, while the Lions posted 19 fouls, which the Eagles used to make 15 points.

Regardless of the low shooting percentage of 32.7 percent from the field and high number of fouls, the Eagles left the first half down by three points, 26-23. In the second half, the Lions pushed ahead by as much as 12, their largest lead of the game.

After 3-pointers by Lopez and sophomore Jordan Box, the Eagles trailed 61-56 with 22 seconds left on the clock. The Eagles fouled while trying to extend the game, but the Lions scored a free-throw to solidify the win.

Our defense was probably the best it’s been all year, especially against a team like UAFS who has multiple guys that can score the ball in a variety of way,” Mathieu said. “Offensively it was just kind of tough. We missed a lot of shots we normally make, and we were without one of our best scorers (Keilan Horton) because of an injury.”

Moon recorded two blocked shots during Thursday night’s loss to extend his streak to 66 games with at least one block. With his 14 points scored, Moon moved to fifth on the Heartland Conference scoring list and fourteenth on the Oklahoma Christian all-time points list with 1,646 career points.

“We must get healthy and just play for one another,” Mathieu said. “I think we can turn things around this week. We just have to go one game at a time.”

The Eagles will host Dallas Baptist University Thursday at 7 p.m.

Statistics provided by the Oklahoma Christian University Sports Information office.