Playing without senior starting guard Eric Braeuer, the Ouachita Baptist Tigers fell to East Central Oklahoma State 73-62 Saturday night. Braeuer missed his first start of the season and did not play after suffering a concussion against Southeastern Oklahoma State Thursday night.
“It’s a tale of two halves. We did some good things in the first half. We had good intensity on defense,” said Head coach Dennis Nutt. “In the second half, we let our guard down and gave up too many easy baskets.”
After shooting 57.7 percent in the first half, OBU went cold in the second half, shooting a mere 20 percent from the field. ECU shot 40.4 percent from the field. East Central found a lot of success from the free-throw line, hitting 25-36. “They made an effort to go inside in the second half and found a lot of success,” said Nutt.
The OBU Tigers saw an 11-point halftime lead dwindle as they were plagued by turnovers. “We fueled their fast break with our turnovers,” said Nutt. “Our turnovers came back to haunt us.” The OBU Tigers had 25 turnovers compared to ECU’s 12.
ECU was able to capitalize on OBU’s turnovers, outscoring them 39-17 in the second half. “When you have 25 turnovers in a game, it’s hard to win,” said Nutt. “It was on us. We couldn’t take care of the basketball.”
Micah Delph led all players with 26 points and 6 rebounds. Allen Buchanan had 12 points and Colt Fason finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds.
Henry Pwono led ECU with 24 points, 10 coming from the free-throw line. He also had 6 rebounds. A.J. Moutry scored 14 points, connecting on 4 three-pointers.
The OBU Tigers (7-13, 4-9) travel to Bethany, Oklahoma next Friday, Feb. 8, to take on the Crimson Storm of Southern Nazarene University. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
By: Mat Brockway
