Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score Goodwell, Okla.—The Aggie men's basketball team kept fans on the edge of their seats Thursday evening as they went neck and neck with a 12-4 Lubbock Christian team. The Chaps went the distance in the second half to come out with a 67-61 squeaker over OPSU.

Melvin Mitchell and Antonio Manns, Jr. accounted for the bulk of the Aggies' points, scoring 39 of the 61 between the two of them. Mitchell made his mark scoring four three-pointers in the first half alone; three of which came in the final four minutes of the half. Manns, seeking a 17-point goal to reach the 1,000-career point milestone, had added up nine in the first twenty minutes. At the break the Aggies were on top 37-31 and were averaging 50 percent from the field, 45.5 percent at three-point range and both teams shot 100 percent from the line.

The Aggies maintained an advantage midway through the second half until two costly turnovers led to baskets for the Chaps, evening the score at 50-50. A two-point lead for Lubbock Christian at the 8:03 mark stretched for two and a half minutes as neither team could find the net. A visitor foul sent Mitchell to the line where he sank two for two and tied things up again at 54-54 with 5:38 remaining. The Aggies then started to struggle from the field, hitting just one of their next eight shots.

Manns who added two free throws early in the second half, drew three consecutive fouls in the last three minutes of play, and landed five more shots from the line to total 18 points for the game; he exceeded 1,000-career points with two minutes left on the clock. LCU finished the game off by going three of seven from the field and five of seven from the line. The Chaps earned their seventh Heartland Conference victory and improved to 13-6 on the season. The Aggies record drops to 8-11 with one conference win.

In the second half the Aggies' shooting percentage plummeted from 50 percent to 24 percent, while LCU's shooting moved in the opposite direction, taking an upturn of about 12 percent in the second period. While starters contributed over 80 percent of the playing time for OPSU, Lubbock Christian's bench saw over 30 percent on-court action time and outscored the Aggie bench 30-4. With all other facets of similar proportion the Aggies' fell short in assists by a margin of -6; of their eight assists on the game, zero were delivered in the second twenty minutes.

Coach Olson commented on the area of discernment stating, "We had zero assists in the second half. That's what happens when you get D'd-up; you start looking for your own shot rather than looking for other people to get the ball to." One Aggie who is consistently generous with the ball is Dedrick Shannon, Jr. Shannon dished a game-high of seven assists in Thursday's performance and currently leads the conference in that category averaging 5.6 per game. Marcus Arrington led the Chaps with six assists and is third in the conference standings.

While Olson was proud of the effort and level of competition his team exhibited, he thought they fell short in the end saying, "I thought we competed and played with a lot of energy and passion for about 38 minutes. Lubbock Christian made some great offensive adjustments and they beat us up defensively. Tyler Rogers was key for them; he made the shots." Rogers ended as the game leader in scoring with 22 points. Mitchell was just shy of the high score with 21 total points, followed by Manns who had 18; no other Aggies scored in double-digits.

Olson continued, "I thought Melvin [Mitchell] shot well and Antonio [Manns] worked hard at rebounding." Mitchell shot a perfect five of five from beyond the arc, going 5-9 from the field for the day; he missed just one free-throw shot to go six of seven from the line. Manns held the team-high in rebounds with seven and Mitchell totaled six; Isaac Cardona of LCU had a game-high of eight rebounds. Aggie guard Zoran Arsenovic took a game-high of five steals currently leads the Heartland with 42 steals on the season.

The Aggie men will host a single-game matchup against Dallas Baptist on Monday, Feb. 1. The Patriots sit second in the conference standings with an overall record of 14-4 and an 8-2 record in conference play. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.