Aggie Men Grab Conference Road Win

Aggie Men Grab a Conference Win on the Road

By Justine Gaskamp on 01/09/2015

Oklahoma City, Okla.-In an overtime battle to the bitter-end, the OPSU men’s
basketball team came through with a clutch win against Heartland opponent
Oklahoma Christian University on Thursday evening.

With Head Coach Jerry Olson out with the flu, the Aggie men were led by
Assistant Coach Reggie Lassiter. The Aggies went into halftime with a
five-point advantage (37-32) but the Eagles came back to tie things up at
65-65 by the end of regulation, bringing the game into its first overtime.
It looked like a second OT was imminent, but a last second buzzer-beater by
OPSU’s Marquavius Williams dashed the prospect and landed OPSU their first
conference win of the season with a final score of 74-72.

The Eagles took a six-point lead after the first five minutes of play and
again at the 11-minute mark when the Aggies went on a scoring spree landing
five three-pointers in a row; OPSU held a 10-point lead with 2:21 left in
the half and entered the locker room up by five. The Aggies went 8-19 from
beyond the arc in the first half and averaged 39 percent from the field.

The three-point show continued in the second half as Jared Straight opened
with a three increasing the Aggies’ lead to eight points. OC quietly climbed
back and took a one-point lead with 11:45 left in the game. The Aggies added
eight points to the board after a layup and two more threes to reclaim a
five-point advantage. As the minutes ticked down the game heated up, ending
with three score-ties in the final three minutes; OC’s Eric Randall pulled a
layup in the final two seconds to force the overtime.

It came down to the wire again in the third period with the Eagles taking an
early lead. The Aggies evened the score with a layup and found themselves up
by three after Eagle fouls sent them to the line. With less than a minute on
the clock the Aggies were up by two but once again the Eagles found the net
with a layup to tie the game at 72-72 and six seconds left to play. The
Aggies answered with a last-second layup of their own and left the court
with a conference win under their belts.

John Lazenby led the game in scoring with 23 points, twelve coming from
beyond the arc and seven from the line. Lazenby also led the Aggies in
rebounds with seven. Austin Thrash contributed a game-high in assists with
six. OC had three players total 15 points: Jordan Box, Eric Randall and John
Moon. Randall brought down a game-high nine rebounds.

Coach Olson had this to say on the victory, "I am really proud of our guys.
They kept battling and found a way to win at the end. Reggie has done a
great job with these guys this week." With the win the Aggies move to 3-9 on
the season and own one Heartland Conference win. The men move on to Wichita,
Kan. where they will play Newman University Saturday afternoon; game time is
set for 3 p.m.

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Justine Gaskamp