OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University lost a hotly contested battle to Mid-America Christian 74-68 on Thursday night at the Gaulke Activity Center.
The Stars, ranked 19th in NAIA Division I men's basketball, trailed all but the first three minutes of game action. OCU dropped to 9-2, 3-1 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.
Mid-America Christian evened its overall season record to 4-4, 2-2.
“I'm disappointed in our effort,” OCU coach Kevin Morrissey said. “Mid-America played a great game, and I knew they would. I tried to tell our guys that we barely beat them at our place, and we needed to be ready to play.
“Losing your composure, turning the ball over 21 times, giving them 17 offensive rebounds – it's hard to win a game when you do all those things. Fifty percent from the free-throw line for the game is just ridiculous. You can't win games when you don't make free throws, and you don't take care of the basketball.”
OCU's scoring effort was well-rounded with four individuals reaching double figures on the night. Nate Flowers, a senior from Waldorf, Md., led all scorers with 16 points and 14 rebounds, both of which were game highs. Johnny Stephene added 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field. Stephene, a junior from Boynton Beach, Fla., shot a perfect 4-for-4 from beyond the arc.
Dee Proby and Bryant Williams chipped in 13-point efforts for OCU in the loss. Williams, a senior from Austin, Texas, also posted seven rebounds, four blocks and two steals for the Stars.
OCU lost the rebounding edge 45-36 and only managed to hit 13 of its 26 attempts from the free throw line. The Stars defense held Mid-America Christian to 1-of-14 shooting from 3-point range, but let the Evangels get 16 second chance points.
“Defensively, it was the inability to limit their second shots that cost us the game,” Morrissey said.
The Stars trailed by five points at halftime after Blake Larson's shot at the buzzer for the Evangels ended the half with a score of 33-28. In the second half, Mid-America started out hot-handed and grew their lead to 11 points midway through the period. OCU put the lead back to single digits after a 3-point basket by Proby found its mark with 9:07 remaining.
“I thought we were passive in the beginning and we just weren't in attack mode,” Morrissey said. “We were really on their heels both in the first and second half for the most part, but I was pleased that they came back and we had a chance.”
After trailing by as many 13 points, the Stars cut the lead to five points on two occasions in the closing minutes and even found themselves in a one-possession game with 59 seconds to play.
A missed basket by Stephene was followed by an OCU foul and subsequent Mid-America Christian free throw. A layup in the waning seconds finished the game scoring at 74-68 in favor of the Evangels.
“It will be nice to have a little bit of a break, but we need to come back hungry,” Morrissey said. “Hopefully the guys will stay in shape as best they can while we're on break and we'll get back to winning.”
After a break for finals and the Christmas holiday, OCU hosts York (Neb.) at 7 p.m. Dec. 29 at Abe Lemons Arena.
