Men's Basketball 1/9/2014 11:41:00 PM

Stars topple John Brown 76-66

OCU improves to 3-1 in SAC play

Terry Johnson scored 21 points on 70 percent shooting against John Brown.

Box Score
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University outlasted John Brown (Ark.) 76-66 Thursday at Abe Lemons Arena.
The Stars scored 27 points off John Brown turnovers and never trailed the 22nd-ranked Golden Eagles on the night. The win moves OCU to 7-4 overall and 3-1 in Sooner Athletic Conference play.
OCU jumped out to an early lead thanks to a hot-shooting first half. The Stars shot 72 percent from the floor, 60 percent from 3-point range and 100 percent from the free-throw line in the first period.
"One of the things we wanted to do was to do our best in the first half to set some type of tone," OCU coach Dionne Phelps said. "It seemed like that worked a little bit and got us off to a good start."
After John Brown's Gilbert Gyamfi tied the game at 14-14 with 11 minutes and six seconds on the clock, OCU got a bucket in the paint from Terry Johnson and embarked on 20-4 run. Jamaal Crayton fueled the run with a pair of clutch 3-point jumpers and staked OCU to a 16-point advantage with 4:53 to go in the half.
Johnson buried a 3-pointer and threw down a dunk off a John Brown turnover to end the half and give the Stars a 45-29 lead at the break.
The Stars scored 21 points off 12 turnovers in the first half. OCU outscored the Golden Eagles 24-18 in the paint in the frame.
John Brown scored the first five points of the second half and a 3-pointer from Kofi Josephs cut the Stars' lead to 45-36.
Crayton answered with a 3-point jumper to give OCU its first bucket of the second half at the 15:32 mark.
The Golden Eagles continued to battle back and cut OCU's advantage to eight points with 6:12 remaining after back-to-back 3-pointers from Josephs.
Kaleb Smith responded with a 3-pointer of his own and pair of free throws to put the Stars back on top and help build a 70-55 lead with 1:40 to go.
The Golden Eagles got a pair of triples from Kurtis Phillips and another from Gyamfi to cut the OCU lead back to eight with less than a minute remaining.
Johnson converted a pair of free throws to put the game out of reach and give the Stars the 76-66 victory.
Johnson led the charge with 21 points on 70 percent shooting from the field on the night. The senior guard added four steals, three rebounds and two assists.
Terrence Walker followed with 13 points and two rebounds and Smith added 11 points, six steals and four rebounds.
"If you look at it over the past couple of games we have shot the ball decently, and hopefully we can continue to do that," Phelps said. "There are things we try to look for when we look at each opponent to try and get open looks, and there were some that we got and some our guys were able to create on their own tonight."
The Stars will return to action against No. 12 St. Gregory's at 5 p.m. Saturday at W.P. Wood Field House in Shawnee, Okla.

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