Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score Goodwell, Okla.—Statistically the Aggies seemed superior, but the outcome of Monday night's matchup fell in favor of the opponent as the Dallas Baptist Patriots defeated the OPSU men's basketball team 95-92 in a battle to the bitter end.

After the first ten minutes of the opening half it looked like the Aggies might be in for a rough night; six turnovers by OPSU helped add ten points to the board for DBU and, at the 10:33 mark the Aggies were down by 13 points with a score of 10-23. Senior Trey Fankhouser sunk a shot in the paint and then Zoran Arsenovic and Antonio Manns, Jr. each busted out with threes bridging the gap to five points with nine minutes left in the half. Recharged and ready to rally the Aggies played all-out basketball from that point on, giving the Patriots more than they had bargained for. Going into the break a mere two points separated the teams with DBU in the lead 39-37.

At halftime OPSU held the upper hand statistically, outshooting the Patriots by 18 percent from the field (52.4 to 34.3), 16 percent from beyond the arc (44.4 to 28.6) and six percent from the line (91.7 to 84.6). The Aggies also showed an edge at the glass with a +5 rebound margin. The main area of concern for OPSU was turnovers; in the first twenty minutes of play, DBU took five steals on ten Aggie turnovers to score 13 points. The Patriots held on to the ball, giving up just three first half turnovers and two steals resulting in four points for OPSU. Antonio Manns, Jr. led the team in scoring with 15 points at the break; DBU's Patrick Burke was leading the game with 17 points.

It was a different game as the teams returned from halftime. The Aggies came out confident and put up 15 points in the first four minutes; they connected on six of nine shots from the field and sunk three long distance shots to gain a four-point lead at the 15:43 mark (52-48). Putting the pressure on the Patriots the Aggies went up by eight after a big bucket for three from Fankhouser upped the score to 64-56 with 12:17 left on the clock. It became a battle from beyond the arc as both teams were sinking threes; in the final eight minutes DBU hit four three-pointers and OPSU landed five.

The Patriots started closing in and managed to even the score (82-82) with 2:58 remaining in the game. They brought their game inside and went four for four in the paint and three for three at the line to edge a seven-point lead with just thirty-nine seconds on the clock. At that point some may have written the Aggies off; but they would not concede victory and, two quick three-pointers from Manns put OPSU back in business. With fifteen seconds showing the Aggies were down two points (92-94) and a turnover by the Patriots gave OPSU a chance to either tie the game or take the win. Having been solid on the outside all night long the Aggies went for the win and put up a three; as it bounced off the rim a foul was forced sending DBU to the line. One shot in the basket left a glimmer of hope with a three-point difference, but another long shot missed by the Aggies allowed the Patriots to dribble down the clock and clinch the win 95-92.

Second-half shooting improved for DBU and the Patriots marked a minor edge over OPSU in all three categories: 59.4 percent from the field (OPSU 52.9), 63.6 percent in three-point shots (OPSU 55.6) and 91.7 percent in free-throws (OPSU 90.0). Overall, however, the Aggies proved predominant averaging 52.7 percent from the field, 51.9 percent at three-point range and 90.9 percent from the line; ranging from three to seven percent better than DBU shooters. The Aggies also out-powered the Patriots on the boards totaling 34 rebounds to DBU's 25; the Aggies led in both offensive and defensive rebounds. OPSU brought down three more blocks in the game and had one more assist than Dallas Baptist, but the two distinct differences came in the form of turnovers and inside shots. Although the Aggies cut their turnover ratio from ten to two in the second half, the Patriots gave up only seven throughout the entire game. The biggest deficit for OPSU was the dominance Dallas Baptist showed in the paint; the Patriots outscored the Aggies 40-28 on easy-looking layups.

DBU's Patrick Burke led his team in scoring with 27 points off nine layups and nine free-throw shots; he also led in rebounds with eight, and had one blocked shot and one assist. Burke was an early threat, taking five for five in the paint within the first four minutes of the game. Antonio Manns, Jr. was lights out all night and put up a game-high of 35 points, including seven of ten from three point range and six of six from the line; he averaged 64.7 percent in shooting for the game and contributed seven rebounds, three assists, one blocked shot and one steal. Zoran Arsenovic tied DBU's Burke for a game-high of eight rebounds; he totaled 15 points, three assists and two steals. Leading the game in assists was OPSU's Marquavius Williams who supported on eight scoring shots. Williams also led the Aggies with two steals and contributed six rebounds, 11 points and one blocked shot.

After the game, an enervated Coach Olson commented, "I'm really, really proud of our guys. We played really well (once we decided to play). I thought we played as a team and with a lot of cohesion. Our guys were really unselfish too, with 21 assists." Clearly disappointed in the outcome the coach added, "Our guys deserved it. I think a few crucial calls really changed the game, but I've got to give credit to DBU; they had some big shots and made some big plays." He reiterated, "I'm just really proud. We gave ourselves a shot to tie at the end."

With the win Dallas Baptist earned the top spot in the Heartland Conference standings and now sits number one with an overall record of 15-5 and a conference record of 9-3. The Aggies are now 8-12 on the season and hold one conference win. OPSU Basketball will continue Heartland play on the road this week as both the men's and women's teams head to Wichita, Kan. to play Newman University Thursday, Feb. 4. They head to Oklahoma City for a matchup with Oklahoma Christian on Saturday and will return to their home court next week with games Thursday and Saturday.