Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Oklahoma City, Okla.—Saturday afternoon the Aggies met with the Eagles of Oklahoma Christian and the Panhandle State men's team took it down to the wire before falling 84-81 in an overtime battle. The Aggie women suffered a 36-point loss in their matchup with OC (96-60).

The Panhandle men's head coach Jerry Olson spoke with pride after the game, despite taking the loss, "I so proud of our guys; I thought they played their hearts out. We kept coming back over and over and gave ourselves a chance to win. I'm just so proud." Olson also added that the Aggies were playing without key member Tevin Lytes who was out with the flu; and starter Sita Sesay was held to limited minutes, also from flu-related symptoms.

In the first half the Aggies lagged by as much as 13 points at the 5:10 mark, but battled back to within a four-point deficit by the break. Getting their first taste of the lead early in the second half, the Aggies would keep things close through the first ten minutes of the period. With 9:12 on the clock, Panhandle was down by five (60-55) when a missed three-pointer led to a layup for the Eagles increasing the gap to seven. Two turnovers and a fouls by the Aggies gave OC another four points, and the home team would take their largest lead of the half (66-55) with 8:25 left in the game.

As the clock ticked down, the Aggies slowly narrowed the point gap with a great team effort on all accounts. Jace Kerr and Pierre Roddy hit back-to-back threes followed by a good jumper by Riyadh Asad to boost the Aggies' momentum; Jaedon Whitfield then came through with two layups in the final five minutes and Malcolm Glanville hit a shot in the paint helping Panhandle tie the game (71-17) as regulation play came to a close. All but two of the Eagles' 13 points in overtime came in the form of free throws, as the Aggies committed six fouls, including a technical, in the five-minute span. Panhandle totaled ten points in OT, five off free throws and five off a layup by Roddy and a three from Sesay.

Riyadh Asad led in scoring for the Aggies totaling 20 points with two three-pointers and a 2-2 stand at the line. The remaining starters for Panhandle put up a combined 50 points (Roddy-15, Glanville-14, Whitfield-13, Kerr-8) and Sesay led from the bench with eight points. Roddy shared his shots offering a game-high of eight assists. OC's John Moon accounted for more than half of the team's points, as he racked up 44 on the Aggies, his third career game of 40 points of more, which ranks fifth on the Heartland's single-game scoring list. Moon was also a strong contributor on defense with six rebounds, three blocks and two steals on the game.

Jace Kerr led at the boards for the Aggies, hauling down 14 rebounds with 12 coming from the defensive front. As a team OC led by just one rebound (41-40) as Panhandle put in their strongest efforts at the boards in the last eight games. The Eagles' leading rebounder was Dorian Lopez who finished with 12.
For the game the Aggies averaged 43.9 percent from the field and shot well beyond the arc landing 10-24 three-point attempts. The Ealges shot at 44.3 percent from the field and went 4-19 at three-point range. Both teams averaged over 60 percent at the line. With the loss the Aggies drop to 5-14 on the season and are 0-10 in conference play.

Unable to find their stride, the women's team trailed throughout all four periods. At halftime the Aggies were down 51-32 shooting at 36 percent while the Lady Eagles averaged over 53 percent from the field and 50 percent beyond the arc. Sloppy shooting in the fourth period (4-23) left the Aggies averaging 29.4 percent for the game. Panhandle's high score came from the strong bench performance of Shaletha Mayberry who totaled a season-high of 11 points, going 6-6 from the line and landing one three-point shot. Addison Munsch and Johlicia Williams also reached double digits scoring ten points apiece.

The games' leading scorers came from OC's starting lineup; Addy Clift and McKenzie Stanford each put up 19 points for the Lady Eagles.  Hannah Whitaker held the game-high in rebounds taking eight boards for the Aggies; Williams and Munsch combined for nine. The Aggie women now hold a 1-17 overall record and still seek a win within the Heartland at 0-10.

Aggie Basketball will host two conference opponents this week taking on UA-Fort Smith on Thursday, Feb. 2 and Rogers State on Saturday, Feb. 4. Thursday's double-header tips off at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday's games begin at 1 p.m.; the women will open each series with the men's game following.