Men’s basketball takes a win on road

The Eagles basketball team made a turnaround from Saturday’s loss and recorded a win against Dallas Baptist University.

A Monday night on the road is unusual for the team, but it didn’t seem to matter as Oklahoma Christian University pulled off a 96-91 victory, making a comeback from a 100-76 loss to Newman University two days prior.

Head Coach Dan Hays said he didn’t know what happened to make the team play so well but he was happy with the result.

“We played a complete game, shot the ball extremely well and just played a terrific game,” Hays said. “Our three guards, [Jordan] Box, [Elijah] Strickland and [Jordan] Rutherford were outstanding, and John Moon and [Eric] Randall did a really good job inside.”

Oklahoma Christian’s eight-man traveling team started the game trailing 7-0. Then, according to Hays, the Eagles fought their way up to gain the lead early in the first half and never lost it.

Strickland took a turn leading the Eagles by scoring 23 points, which included six 3-pointers, five rebounds and two assists. Box followed, recording 22 points with a game-high nine assists.

Rutherford contributed 17 points for the Eagles, adding seven assists and four rebounds.

Box said that playing with lots of defensive energy would give the Eagles a chance to beat the patriots.

“The hardest part about playing Dallas Baptist is that they have a lot of shooters and they have an efficient offense,” Box said before the game. “I think we can work hard [and] slow them down.”

The Eagles did slow down the Patriot’s offense, holding them to 51.6 percent accuracy, and increasing their own offense to nearly 57 percent throughout the game. The team also shot nearly 62 percent from behind the arch, making 13 3-pointers.

While the offensive end fell into place, the defensive end struggled.

Moon, contributing 18 points and three blocks, suffered with four personal fouls. Randall also earned four fouls but added 10 points and shot 6-6 at the free-throw line despite the extra pressure.

Oklahoma Christian will prepare for their next game against Rogers State University on Thursday, and Hays said this game can’t be predetermined.

“I’m really pleased at how we’ve come together and now we’re playing a team Thursday that beat us by 50 points [earlier this season] so that’ll be interesting,” Hays said.

The Eagles will host Rogers State on Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m.

00