It wasn't pretty at times, but John Brown's men's basketball team found a way to win in its final regular season game of 2016.
JBU sophomore Josh Bowling blocked a 3-point shot attempt from Ecclesia's Austin Burroughs in the final seconds and the Golden Eagles survived an upset bid by Ecclesia 79-76 on Thursday in Bill George Arena.
JBU allowed Ecclesia to go on a 14-0 run in the first half to take as much as an eight-point lead in the first half. The Golden Eagles rallied in the second half and led by as many as nine points themselves with nearly three-and-a-half minutes to go, only to watch Ecclesia surge one last time.
The Royals had two shots to tie in the final 12.9 seconds, but Dequclean Bagsby lost the ball out of bounds on Ecclesia's first attempt at it and Bowling's block on the Royals' final play sealed the win.
"We got the play we wanted to run," said Ecclesia coach Al McCarron. "We ran a play, got one of our best shooters to get the ball, got a good look. I thought he got fouled there at the end, but he didn't. It was a good block, so we just didn't make it. We had an opportunity."
Indeed, the Springdale-based Royals (5-7) did have an opportunity to beat a team that last year beat them 101-60 in the same building.
"It's a big turnaround for us," McCarron said. "We put an emphasis on defense. We know (JBU) can shoot the ball. So we tried to guard the 3 and they missed some. That's why we stayed in the game, and we're good at attacking the basket. That's what we do and we do it well."
JBU took its biggest lead of the first half, 26-20, after a 3-pointer on the wing from Brandon Joseph with a little more than 5 minutes remaining in the first half.
That's when Ecclesia went on its run to turn the game on its head. Bagsby hit four straight free throws and Cash Krueger followed with a jump shot as the Royals tied the game 26-26. Burroughs hit a pair at the line as Ecclesia took the lead and David Gout Jr., Burroughs and Krueger helped extend the lead to 34-26.
JBU pulled within 35-30 at halftime.
JBU head coach Jason Beschta said the halftime locker room wasn't one where he did a lot of yelling and screaming to try and get the Golden Eagles' attention.
"They've got some maturity about them," Beschta said. "I think they recognized what they were doing. I actually left the locker room, not leaving angry, and said it's got to come from you guys, not just me yelling at you to get you going. There's a time and place for that. Then I hear guys starting to speak up when I left the room and I thought they're getting on the same page. They rallied together and had a great start to the second half."
JBU took the lead for good with 15:23 left in the game on a pair of free throws by freshman Brenton Toussaint, who had his best game as a Golden Eagle scoring 11 points and grabbing seven rebounds off the bench. Toussaint would later a dunk a part of an 8-0 JBU run and the Golden Eagles never lost the lead the rest of the way.
"I thought we responded well in the second half and that's important," Beschta said. "That's what these nonconference games are all about. You're going to get tested. It was great to see how our guys responded to being down and not playing well."
Jake Caudle added a pair of 3-pointers later in the second half as the Golden Eagles extended their lead. Caudle finished with a team-high 17 points.
JBU's bench, led by Toussaint, actually outscored its starters 42-37, as Joseph finished with nine, Marquis Waller eight and Samuel Egedi six points.
It was good to see the production from the JBU bench, Beschta said, especially that of Toussaint and Egedi who have both struggled to find their way in the early going of the season.
"I thought Brenton and Sam especially, the two of them off the bench as posts, they grabbed a bunch of offensive boards for us," Beschta said. "They were able to bring some timely buckets for us. They weren't really turning it over. They've got to be relentless on the boards. Brent is strong and Sam is quick and athletic. Both of those guys went at it and we need that out of them going forward. I thought also off the bench Brandon did a really good job for us."
JBU outrebounded Ecclesia 41-30, but the Golden Eagles had 19 turnovers, while the Royals only had 14.
"I'm not going to make any excuses for anything tonight," Beschta said. "We were too loose with the ball, especially in the first half. That led to things. We missed shots early. I thought we executed well and we got shots, then we missed them. So we started shot faking and started doing things we don't do, traveling and throwing the ball all over the place."
Bagsby led all scorers with 23 points for Ecclesia while Burroughs had 13 and Chris White 12.
The win moves JBU to 9-4 overall as it completes the fall semester portion of its schedule. The Golden Eagles played an exhibition game on Saturday at Oral Roberts in Tulsa and they'll have another exhibition next Sunday at No. 4-ranked Baylor, but neither game will count toward JBU's regular season record.
"Exhibitions are something that as players they're excited about because you want to see what you can do competing against a higher level," Beschta said. "That's something you get excited about. We get to go to ORU and Baylor -- two great environments. Baylor, there's some history there with (assistant) coach (Ty) Beard and I being there with Coach Drew before. It's going to be neat for us to get back. And just the fact that they're having such a special season right now and they're up to No. 4 in the country, we're going to be suiting up against guys that are probably going to be in the NBA at some point. That's got to be exciting for the guys.
"I don't think we're under any illusions of what we're getting into with these games, but we also want to get better. It's not hey let's go play and we'll all get minutes and we'll all go eat cake afterwards. We want to go out there and see if we can go execute our stuff against the highest level. That's going to be fun to see us do"
JBU won't play another regular season game until Jan. 5 when it hosts Southwestern Christian (Okla.) in a Sooner Athletic Conference game. JBU is 1-1 in Sooner Athletic Conference play with a 84-76 loss to Oklahoma City on Dec. 1 and a 89-83 win at St. Gregory's on Dec. 3.
John Brown 79, Ecclesia 76
Ecclesia^35^41^--^76
John Brown^30^49^--^79
Ecclesia (5-7): Bagsby 23, Burroughs 13, White 12, Gout 9, Hempstead 9, Krueger 8, Reed 2.
John Brown (9-4): Caudle 17, Toussaint 11, Joseph 9, Roberts 8, Waller 8, Egedi 6, Smith 5, Martinez 4, Bowling 4, English 4, Ledford 3.
Sports on 12/11/2016