Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Weatherford, Okla.—The Aggies owned every minute of Saturday's matchup against Southwestern Oklahoma State, and put an end to the Bulldog's seven-game winning streak by claiming a 76-65 victory over the Great American Conference's top-ranked team.

In perhaps their finest shooting performance in recent history, the Aggies averaged 48 percent from the field and landed eight of 19 long distance shots for a 42 percent three-point average. Accurate at the line, OPSU shooters missed just four free-throws for the game averaging 80 percent on 20 attempts.

Antonio Manns, Jr. led the game and earned his second double-double of the season producing game-highs in scoring and rebounds with 28 points and 11 defensive boards; Manns went 7-7 from the line and came away with two steals in his 35 minutes on the court.

At halftime the Aggies held a 42-31 lead and maintained the lead throughout the entire first 20 minutes of play. The Bulldog's deficit grew to 14 points early in the second half as the Aggies added a quick three points to the board on a layup by Marquavius Williams followed by a successful free-throw by Zoran Arsenovic within in the opening minute after the break.

SWOSU went on to connect on 4-5 shots and chiseled the OPSU lead down to seven points at the 16:28 mark, but that would be the closest margin the Aggies would allow; maintaining composure the OPSU men held on for an eleven-point win over the intra-state opponent.

Thrilled with the victory head coach Jerry Olson offered the following statement, "This is a great team road win. I am really proud of our guys; they played really, really hard." He added, "We don't always play great, but we play hard."

The Aggies held SWOSU shooters to an overall average of 38.5 percent from the field; the Bulldogs went ten of 33 in the first half alone and connected on 23.5 percent of three-point attempts. OPSU was strong at the boards out-rebounding the Bulldogs 42-31 on the game and outscored SWOSU 13-9 in second-chance points. Both teams were evenly matched in the paint scoring 30 points each. The Aggies got away with 11 stolen balls on 15 SWOSU turnovers for a total of 17 points off turnovers, while the Bulldogs managed nine takeaways on 21 Aggie turnovers for 12 points.

Manns led at the boards for OPSU with 11 rebounds while two Bulldogs accounted for more than half of their team's totals boards; Ayo Ojo and Markeise Champion brought down eight rebounds each. Zoran Arsenovic and Brian Davis combined for 11 Aggie rebounds and SWOSU's Emeche Wells led the game with four steals. Champion and Wells were also leading scorers for the Bulldogs totaling 16 points each.

"Southwestern is a very good basketball team," continued Olson, "to win at their place is very nice. I thought our rebounding was a key as guys were going after balls hard, and we did a nice job blocking out. We were lucky they missed a bunch of threes."

OPSU now owns a 6-1 overall record this season and looks to keep the three-game winning streak alive as they enter Heartland Conference play on the road this week. The Aggies open with a game against St. Mary's in San Antonio, Texas Thursday, Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m.; they continue on to Laredo for another conference match-up on Saturday with Texas A&M International at 3 p.m. Aggie fans can keep up with the action via live stats and video links available on the men's basketball schedule page of the OPSU Aggie Athletics website.