OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City University men's basketball team took the wire-to-wire 82-67 win over USAO on Senior Night at Abe Lemons Arena on Thursday.
The Stars moved to 17-12, 10-11 on the season and stand in eighth place in the Sooner Athletic Conference as the regular season comes to a close. OCU will host the conference tournament March 3-5 where the top eight teams qualify for postseason play.
“I thought the guys played well, and they were really in tune for the most part,” OCU coach Kevin Morrissey said. “We did a great job of limiting them to one shot to start the half and our matchup zone was really effective. I thought we contested shots and did a good job on the offensive end. We were kind of in attack mode and really rebounded well tonight, in particular. I think that was the difference in the game.”
The Stars got a stellar performance from Nate Flowers, a senior from Waldorf, Md., in his last regular-season home game. Flowers poured in 23 points and had 13 rebounds in the victory. He was 9-of-16 from the field and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line.
“I just told Nate's father he should be up here every game for Nate,” Morrissey said. “I think Nate was really focused and he just came out and battled and he was really in tune tonight. He really wanted to play and finish his last game at OCU in a great manner.”
Brandon Moton, a junior from Beaumont, Texas, poured in 17 points while adding six assists, five rebounds and three steals for the Stars. Bryant Williams, a senior from Austin, Texas, put up 14 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Orlan Jackman, a junior from London, added 14 points of his own to go along with eight rebounds. Flowers, Williams and fellow seniors Dee Proby and Cesar Cuevas started the game for the Stars in their final home contest.
The game was tied with 15:11 on the clock in the first half after USAO's Trell Porter evened the score at eight apiece. OCU used a 9-0 run from that point forward to earn some breathing room. The Stars streaked to a 19-point halftime lead after a Cuevas tip-in as time expired found its mark to make the score 48-29 at the midpoint break.
OCU extended the lead to 24 points with 14:39 remaining in the contest with a Williams dunk off a Moton feed. The Stars advantage was 58-34 after the crowd-pleasing play from Williams. OCU allowed the Drovers to creep back into the game with a 15-4 run cut the score to 70-57 with 5:01 to play.
USAO edged even closer after Damian Jones sunk a pair of free throws with one minute to go and the score at 68-67. The Drovers could get no closer as the Stars punctuated the night with a Jackman dunk on another Moton assist with 16 seconds remaining.
OCU dominated the battle of the boards 52-26 and held USAO to 36.9 percent shooting from the field on the night. The Stars led all the hustle categories handily, namely outscoring the Drovers 42-12 in the paint and owning a 27-9 advantage in second-chance points.
“Southern Nazarene is very talented, and it's going to be senior night for them on Saturday,” Morrissey said. “We just need to be ready to play and I know they're really aggressive. They're very physical and we've got to be ready for that. Hopefully tonight's effort will give us some momentum going into it. This is really a must-win situation.”
The Stars close the regular season with a showdown at 15th-ranked Southern Nazarene Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Sawyer Center.
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