OKLAHOMA CITY -- No. 23 Oklahoma City (17-7, 13-5 SAC) used a game-high 29 points from Tharone Chilton to erase a nine-point, second-half deficit to hold onto an 81-75 win over John Brown (16-14, 8-10 SAC) Monday inside Abe Lemons Arena.
Coupled with Oklahoma Baptist's loss at home to Science & Arts (Okla.), the Golden Eagles maintained its grasp on the No. 6 seed at this week's Sooner Athletic Conference tournament by virtue of sweeping the Bison in the two-game season series. JBU won both games by one point.
Also by virtue of tiebreakers, City claimed the No. 2 seed, sending the Golden Eagles into a tournament quarterfinal contest with No. 14 Wayland Baptist (Texas) at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Junior D.J. Feitl scored 22 of his team-high 27 points in a first half that featured two ties and four lead changes. Feitl's output tied a career-best, set three other times this season.
All five of JBU's opening shots were of the 3-point variety, one of which came by means of an and-one by junior Griffin Brady, sending the visitors out to a 15-13 lead at the 13:52 mark. City responded with consecutive buckets to regain the lead, but a Feitl free throw and then a jump shot forced a pair of ties at 17-17 and 19-19.
Both teams enjoyed six-point leads in the first half. The Golden Eagles' 12-6 advantage was overcome, but OCU's Evan White drilled a triple at the 7:55 mark to hand the Stars a 27-21 lead. Griffin countered with his second trey of the frame which was followed by back-to-back jumpers from senior Max Hopfgartner. Feitl converted a pair at the line on the next possession and later hit his third triple to tie the game at 33.
Feitl ended the first stanza on a personal 7-4, staking JBU to a 43-40 halftime lead. The Golden Eagles shot 46.4 percent (13 of 28) in the first frame and drilled 7 of 14 triples (50 percent). City hit only 3 of 11 from behind the arc (27.3 percent) but managed a 17 of 44 clip (38.6 percent), taking advantage of 16 more shooting chances than the visitors, powered by 15 offensive rebounds and five Golden Eagle turnovers.
Senior Samson Olayemi kept the John Brown offense moving in the second half by landing a pretty spin move layup in the lane to cap off a personal 5-0 run. Feitl used a bucket in transition to hand the visitors a 50-42 lead at the 16:42 mark.
With 15:01 left in the game, the Golden Eagles earned its largest lead, nine, when Olayemi fed a streaking Matthew Ledford for a lay-in after stripping OCU's R.J. McGhee for one of his team-high two steals on the night. Then Chilton took over the game.
Chilton went on to score 17 straight points for Oklahoma City and after JBU's nine-point lead, City rolled off a 19-7 run over the next 5:32 to take a 64-61 lead.
"We played a great game for about 30 minutes tonight against a very talented Oklahoma City team," said head coach Jason Beschta. "That one stretch in the second half just killed us when City went on a big run and we couldn't score on nine out of 10 possessions. You can't do that against many teams in this league and come away with a victory."
Down six, 69-63, with 4:07 remaining, Hopfgartner hit a hook shot and Feitl drilled his fifth triple of the contest to send John Brown to within a point.
Down five with 23 seconds remaining, Olayemi drove the right side of the lane and earned an and-one, which he converted, forcing just a 77-75 deficit. City's McGhee and Evan White each converted their trips to the line and the Golden Eagles finished the final 2:52 of the contest just 2-of-8 from the field while committing three turnovers.
Brady added 16 points and nine rebounds while Hopfgartner tallied his 10th double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Olayemi netted 10 points, all in the second half, and a game-high six assists in the loss.
Chilton tallied a game-high 29 points and McGhee added 23 points. Ivan Jelencic scored 12 points and pulled down nine rebounds. White came off the bench to contribute 10 in the win for City.
"We are a team that needs to be firing on all cylinders to be dangerous," Beschta said. "We got some great looks for each other but just didn't knock them down like we normally do. They did a good job of contesting us, but if a couple more of our shots fall, it would have opened things up more us.
"Our mantra all year has been about playing our best ball at tournament time. Well, now we are here, and I believe we are playing our best ball. Anything can happen in the conference tournament."
Sports on 03/04/2015