ALVA, Okla. – Oklahoma City University and Northwestern played in a back and forth battle from Percefull Fieldhouse before the Rangers escaped with the 82-74 overtime win Thursday.
OCU, ranked 21st in NAIA Division I men's basketball, fell to 10-5, 3-4 in the Sooner Athletic Conference. The Stars have yet to pick up a win on the road this season.
The Stars extended their losing streak to three.
“I thought the guys played hard,” OCU coach Kevin Morrissey said. “We were up four with 36 seconds to play, missed two free throws and then just couldn't execute an inbounds play and turned it over. It was a really unfortunate way to finish the game and then they had a lot of momentum obviously going into overtime.”
Nate Flowers, a senior from Waldorf, Md., led the Stars with 25 points and 11 rebounds in the loss, all of which came in the 40 minutes of regulation. He put in 10 of his 13 shot attempts for OCU Flowers has posted nine double-doubles on the season.
Brandon Moton, a junior from Beaumont, Texas, picked up 17 points on 50 percent shooting from 3-point range. Five 3-pointers found their mark for Moton, but his attempt at the buzzer of regulation just fell short to extend the contest past regulation.
Northwestern got the early 5-0 jump on the Stars, but the see-saw battle was just beginning. The first half saw eight lead changes in the hotly contested battle. By the halftime break, the Rangers held a 38-34 advantage and the tight game stayed that way to the final buzzer.
OCU started the second half with a 6-2 run to tie the game at 40-40 before the Rangers went on a 7-0 run to get their largest lead of the contest. The Stars scrapped back with a 9-0 run of their own to get the lead back at 56-55 with 7:47 to play. In the run, Flowers had six of OCU's nine points. The Stars defense held the Rangers scoreless for a five minute span to regain the scoring advantage in the game.
Northwestern had an opportunity to tie the game after Johnie Sanders got the bucket and foul at the 3:12 mark to put the score at 60-59. Sanders missed his free throw and Moton hit a three to put the OCU lead at four. Jonathan Freemyer answered with a three of his own to cut the Stars' lead back to one with 1:59 remaining. Moton again put up an answering three for OCU to get it back to 66-62 with 1:34.
The Rangers' Marshall Bell sunk a pair from the free throw line with 32.8 seconds remaining to keep Northwestern within one possession of the Stars. An ensuing OCU turnover by Flowers with 29.6 seconds gave Northwestern the opportunity to tie. Bell ripped the step-back jumper to tie the game at 66-66 with 9.5 seconds on the clock. The Stars couldn't get the final 3-point shot attempt by Moton to fall, and the game went to extra minutes.
In the overtime period, OCU started the scoring and got the 70-66 lead before the Rangers went on a 9-0 run to sink the Stars. A pair of free throws by Orren Tims gave Northwestern the 71-70 lead, their first lead since 9:07 was remaining in the second period. Tims scored nine points in the extra action as the Rangers shot 60.0 percent from the field and were 9-of-11 from the free-throw line in the overtime period. Northwestern outscored OCU 16-8 in overtime to pull away with the win.
For the game OCU made 52.1 percent of their field goal attempts compared to 38.9 percent for Northwestern. The Stars committed 18 turnovers and were outrebounded 44-36 in the loss.
“Tonight we had a really good opportunity to beat a really good team on their home floor, and unfortunately we just didn't finish,” Morrissey said.
OCU faces off against Oklahoma Christian in the Backyard Brawl at Abe Lemons Arena on Saturday at 8 p.m.
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