Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Oklahoma City—Oklahoma Christian University played host to the OPSU men's and women's basketball teams Saturday afternoon and dominated in both matchups. The Lady Eagles took a 36-point win over the Aggie women and the men's team fell by a score of 92-104.

The women put in competitive first and fourth periods but a poor performance in the mid-stretch saw the Aggies outscored by a combined 30 points for periods two and three. Kiera Waters led the team in first-half scoring with nine points, all from long distance shots. Waters landed her first three with six minutes remaining in the first period and was followed by Tatyana Bell with a three-pointer that put the Aggies on top 10-8. Waters hit her second three-point basket at the 2:48 mark to hold a one-point lead for OPSU.  The Lady Eagles answered with back-to-back threes followed by consecutive jumpers to edge a four-point lead going into the second period "(22-18).

A sloppy second period opened with two Aggie player fouls and three consecutive turnovers by OPSU helping OC pull out to a twelve-point lead two and a half minutes into the quarter. The Aggies went 4 of 16 and committed a total of eight turnovers and six fouls in the second period and left the court down by 21 points (28-49) at halftime.

With the exception of two free-throws, Tatyana Bell carried the weight of her team in the third period, scoring nine of the 11 points put up for the Aggies. Shaletha Mayberry added the extra two points at the end of the quarter, but the Lady Eagles had jumped out to a 34-point lead (73-39) with one period left to play. The Aggies scored 19 points in the final ten minutes including seven points from the bench, seven points off turnovers and five on second-chance shots. The fourth quarter drive was not enough to overcome the shortfalls of the second and third periods and Oklahoma Christian notched their eighth Heartland Conference victory by a score of 94-58. The Aggie women fall to 1-19 on the season and still search for their first conference victory.

Bell's efforts earned game-highs in both scoring and rebounds; she totaled 21 points and seven boards and offered one assist and one block on the game. Waters' scoring ended in the first half as she finished the game with nine points. Brittany Alavinejad took three of the Aggies' ten steals to lead the game in takeaways. OC's Sarah Parker scored a team-high of 19 points and the Lady Eagles were led at the glass by Sydney Hill who had six rebounds; Hill held a game-high in assists with six.

Coach Charles Terry said this of Saturday's contest, "We really struggle to score and it affects other areas of our game. We need to get our confidence back and just keep working." For the game, the Aggies averaged 28.4 percent from the field while Oklahoma Christian shot at 50 percent throughout. OPSU went 5-20 from beyond the arc and the Lady Eagles landed 11 of 18 three-pointers. The Aggies also fell behind at the line in the second half and ended with an overall average of 65.2 percent in free-throw attempts.

Like the women, the men's team got off to a sluggish start before putting the pressure on in a too-little-too-late second-half effort. The Aggie men were also affected by 25 player fouls which added a total of 30 points to the board for Oklahoma Christian. The Eagles were on fire from the tip-off, missing just one shot in the first thirteen minutes of the game; the Aggies hit on seven of twenty attempts, nine being long distance shots, and were down 19-38 with 5:59 showing on the clock. The Aggies managed three successful jumpers as the last six minutes ticked off the clock and headed into halftime with 23 points separating them from the Eagles (25-48). Antonio Manns, Jr. connected for twelve points in the opening half but overall OPSU shooters averaged 32.3 percent in shooting and went 3-15 from beyond the arc. OC shot 77.3 percent from the field in the first half.

Manns started with a steal off the opening dribble which resulted in a two-point shot by Robert McCalley at the beginning of the second half. Manns followed up with a three on an assist by Melvin Mitchell, who then got the ball back on an OC turnover. Manns busted out two more three-pointers, but the Eagles maintained a 21-point lead with 14 minutes remaining in the game. It was at the 14:02 mark that the Aggies switched gears and went on to sink seven of their next eight shots; Zoran Arsenovic went four for four in jump shots and made it five of five with 9:45 showing to pull the Aggies within 14 points of the Eagles. Later in the half, Jared Straight landed two threes to help the Aggies narrow the gap to 11 points (74-85) with 5:46 still to play.

OC inched back to a 15-point lead with three-minutes left but, the Aggies fired back with both barrels as Arsenovic, Manns and Williams each threw up successful three-point shots, one right after the other. Down by ten with just under two minutes on the clock, the Aggies still stood a chance; forced to foul, they sent OC shooters to the line twice to add three points for the home team. Despite a last minute three by Manns and a good jumper from Arsenovic, time slipped away along with OPSU's chance for a second win over the Eagles this season. The Aggies drop to an 8-13 overall record and hold one win in the Heartland Conference, their victory over Oklahoma Christian in January. The Eagles improved to 6-16 on the year and own three wins within the conference.

In Saturday's meeting, Oklahoma Christian's seven-foot center, John Moon went a perfect 20-of-20 in shooting and broke school and conference records for single-game scoring with a total of 50 points. Moon missed just three shots all night going 10-13 from the line and tied NCAA Division-II records for field-goal percentage and consecutive field goals in a game; he also contributed eight rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal against the Aggies. With Saturday's performance, Moon surpassed OPSU's Manns to take the lead in scoring within the conference ranks. Jordan Rutherford earned the games only double-double with 25 points and ten rebounds for the Eagles.

Manns led the OPSU men in scoring with 35 points and went 7-13 from beyond the arc; he finished with three assists and three steal on the night. Arsenovic was the team's next leading scorer with 20 points and tied Robert McCalley for the team-high in rebounds with six each. Currently leading the conference in steals, Arsenovic held the game-high with four. Williams led the Aggies in assists with five while OC's Elijah Strickland doled out a game-high of nine.

The Eagles ended the game averaging 70.8 percent from the field and the Aggies, who improved to 59 percent in the second half, averaged 47.1 percent for the game. OPSU also improved on protection in the second half, giving up just four turnovers for six points; overall the Aggies added 22 points off 15 steals and 24 Eagle turnovers. At the boards the Eagles came away with 34 rebounds for the game; the Aggies totaled 21.

It's Homecoming week at OPSU and the Aggies will be back in action in the Oscar Williams Field House Thursday evening. Both teams will meet up for conference games against Rogers State. The women tip-off at 5:30 p.m. against an 11-9 Hillcat team and the men compete afterwards, taking on the second-ranked team in the league, 18-4 RSU. Royalty will be crowned between Saturday's games against Arkansas-Fort Smith with the women's game scheduled for 1 p.m.