CHICKASHA, Okla. – The Oklahoma City University men's basketball team dropped an 82-75 decision against USAO Thursday at USAO Fieldhouse.
Xavier Smith had 19 points and 12 rebounds for his Sooner Athletic Conference leading 12th double-double of the season. Oklahoma City, ranked 19th in the NAIA, dropped a game out of first -place and now sits at 18-7, 9-6 in SAC play while USAO moved to 14-12, 9-6 SAC.
Smith, a senior from Richardson, Texas, hit 6 of his 10 shots from the floor and went 7-for-10 from the free throw line while also blocking three shots in the loss.
"USAO did a great job of attacking our defense," Stars head coach Vinay Patel said. "We played on our heels most of the night and couldn't keep them out of the paint. I thought we competed well in the first, half, but couldn't put two halves together."
Both teams were effective inside as USAO had 42 points in the paint and OCU had 40. The Stars bench outscored USAO 23-5, but the Drovers held a 17-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
USAO had three players with at least 20 points as Taran Buie, Imani Edwards and Julius Foster had 24, 22 and 20 respectively. Buie, a 6-2 senior, added four rebounds and four steals while going 10-for-10 from the charity stripe.
Oklahoma City led by as many as six points in the second half, but were unable to hold the lead as they were outscored 8-2 in the final 1:42 of the game.
Jonathan Reed, a junior out of Powder Springs, Ga., produced 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals for OCU.
As a team, the Stars shot 46.6 from the field compared to 52.0 percent from USAO. The Drovers shot 63.2 percent and outscored OCU 46-36 in the second half.
"We made some critical errors down the stretch that really hurt us," Patel said. "There are three conference games left in the season, and we have to decide what type of team we want to be as we finish up."
Walter Rickett, a junior from Dallas, was the only other Star in double figures with 13 points on 4 of 7 shooting.
The largest lead for OCU came on a Syrus McDonald layup with 8:30 left in the first half. It capped what was an 18-4 run for the Stars.
Oklahoma City will look to keep pace in the competitive Sooner Athletic Conference at 5 p.m. Saturday as they travel to Shawnee, Okla., to take on St. Gregory's at Don Sumner Fieldhouse.