Rough night for Eagles as Southern Nazarene rolls in rivalry game

 

December 8, 2016



BETHANY, Okla. (Dec. 6, 2016) – Looking at the stat sheet Tuesday night, Oklahoma Christian men's basketball coach Cory Cole saw only one positive in the Eagles' performance at Southern Nazarene – that the game was over.

SNU jumped on the Eagles early and never really let up while taking an 81-60 win at the Sawyer Center, an unusual blowout in a rivalry series that has featured scores of tight games through the decades.

OC (3-3) committed 23 turnovers, went just 2-of-10 from 3-point range and was outrebounded 41-31.

"We've got to get better," Cole said. "Our preparation has to be better. We played poorly in the first 10 minutes on the road. That's been our consistent theme this season, so we've got to come out with our preparation and get these kids ready to play from the jump. It starts with our point guards; it starts with our staff.

"You've got to play better on the road and you've got to play better early on the road, and we haven't done that."

OC led only once, at 2-0. SNU (5-4) answered with a 12-2 run and kept mashing the gas pedal to take a 45-24 lead at halftime. The Eagles didn't record a basket in the first seven minutes of the second half and the Crimson Storm led 66-35 after a 3-pointer by Deshon Portley with 10:06 left.

Then OC put together its best stretch of the game, scoring 12 straight points and pulling within 66-47 on Marcus Mathieu's layup with 7:22 left. Although the Eagles came no closer, they didn't let SNU continue to pull away in the final minutes.

"The guys never quit," Cole said. "It's just getting that cohesiveness and chemistry of what we're trying to do, and that's going to take time. I told the guys after the game that our schedule hasn't really given us a lot of toughness. We've got to play tougher teams.

"These last three weeks, we've been on fools' gold. This was a good team and we hadn't seen that in the last three weeks. It's hard to think you're ready when you haven't played like competition. That's on the staff. We're definitely going to play a more competitive schedule, because that's what gets you ready for conference play. You've got to play good teams early. SNU has played a tougher schedule than us and it showed tonight."

John Moon led OC with 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots. He raised his career point total to 1,529, moving past Will Reinke (2010-2013) and Devin Nightengale (1999-2002) into 19th place on OC's all-time scoring list.

Keilan Horton added 13 points and Mathieu had 12 for OC. SNU had five players reach double figures, led by C.J. White with 14 and Portley and Noah Starkey, who had 12 each.

OC will host NAIA foe Central Christian (Kan.) at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Eagles' penultimate nonconference game of the season.

 

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