Senior Marquavius Williams goes up for a shot under heavy coverage by the Rattlers.-Sarah Henderson photo
Box Score Goodwell, Okla.—Things got heated Saturday afternoon as the Aggie men left it all on the court in a season finale, Heartland Conference matchup against St. Mary's University.
With six seniors closing out their college playing careers for OPSU, the Aggies seemed ready for battle as they broke out to and eight-point lead within the first five minutes of play. The Rattlers racked up ten fouls in ten minutes, adding nine points in free-throws to the board for the Aggies. Fouls plagued both teams as 29 fouls were called in the first half alone; 15 for St. Mary's and 14 for OPSU. The first twenty minutes of the game saw four lead changes and four tied scores, with the Rattlers ending with the upper-hand at the break, leading 43-38 over the Aggies.
Senior Antonio Manns, Jr. led the Aggies with 11 points at halftime, and Lachie Woodhill held the game-high with 12 points for St. Mary's. OPSU was shooting at 33.3 percent after the first period, while SMU landed 51.5 percent of shots from the field. From the foul line the Aggies went 15-21 and the Rattlers hit seven of 13. St. Mary's led in the paint 28-6 for first-half scoring and the Rattler bench put up 25 points in the opening period, while OPSU acquired nine points from non-starters.
St. Mary's started out the second half with two turnovers and four fouls to help the Aggies edge within one point at the 17:02 mark (44-45). The Aggies then committed four turnovers and six fouls in the following eight minutes to fall back behind their opponent by a score of 53-61. Five more visitor fouls sent the Aggies to the line to add seven points, and back-to-back threes by Manns put OPSU back in business with a five-point lead (70-65) and under four minutes left in the game. The fouls fell in favor of the visiting team as the Aggies battled for possession in the final minutes of the game. The Rattlers put up ten successful free-throw shots to take the final victory over OPSU 81-74.
Fifty-four fouls were called throughout the game, each team ending with 27 player infractions; and a total of 49 points were scored from the foul line (29 for OPSU and 20 for St. Mary's). The Aggies averaged 34.6 percent from the field and made nine of 25 three-point attempts; the Rattlers landed three of ten from beyond the arc and averaged 47.5 percent shooting for the game.
The six Aggie seniors combined for 55 points led by Antonio Manns, Jr. who earned a game-high with 19 points; Zoran Arsenovic totaled 13 points followed by Marquavius Williams with nine, Jared Straight with eight, DeShawn Dean with four and Trey Fankhouser with two. Freshman Robert McCalley came in clutch from the bench with 15 points, four rebounds and two steals. Manns also got the game-high in rebounds with nine and fellow seniors (Williams, Arsenovic, Straight, Fankhouser and Dean) totaled 13 boards on the afternoon. Williams and Arsenovic led the team in assists with six and four respectively and Williams and McCalley led the Aggies in steals taking three and two each. Dean held the game-high with three blocks as well.
Head Coach Jerry Olson was very proud of his teams' effort and the strong performances from his seniors saying, "I thought we deserved it. Our seniors played really hard and I have really enjoyed coaching them. I thought we attempted to block out well, but they outsized us and we just couldn't keep them off the boards."
St. Mary's leading scorers were Lachie Woodhill, Stefan Wright and Yanni Wetzell totaling 16, 14 and 12 points respectively. Wright and Kriston Minor led the Rattlers at the glass with six boards each and Bryce Smith offered up game-highs of eight assists and five steals for SMU. With the win St. Mary's men will also advance as the last seed in the conference tournament. The Aggies end their season with an 8-20 overall record and one win within the league. Manns finished his senior season as the Aggies' leading scorer totaling 570 points on the year for a per game average of 20.4 points; he also leads in free throw percentage averaging 84.8 percent from the line and totaled 51 three-pointers on the year for a team-high. In his one year with the Aggies, Arsenovic battled for the ball leading the Aggies in both rebounds and steals; he totaled 155 rebounds and 52 steals for the season and finished second-highest in scoring with 344 points (12.3 per game). In 26 games played, DeShawn Dean held the highest field goal percentage for the Aggies, shooting at 52.5 percent for the year. Dean also led his team in blocked shots with 13. Freshman Dedrick Shannon, Jr. was the team leader in assists, contributing 121 in his first year as a collegiate athlete.
Like the women, the Aggie men will also have opportunities to claim All-Conference honors with individual performances. Good luck to all of the senior athletes as they prepare for graduation and embark on future endeavors.