Each and every time John Brown University made a run at No. 11 Texas Wesleyan's lead Saturday, the Rams had a response.
The result was a wire-to-wire 83-73 road victory for Texas Wesleyan inside Bill George Arena in a game where the Rams never trailed.
Sooner Athletic Conference Basketball Standings
MEN^CONFERENCE^OVERALL
^W-L^W-L
SAGU^5-1^14-4
MACU^4-1^14-3
Texas Wesleyan^4-2^13-4
Science and Arts^3-2^8-5
Wayland Baptist^3-3^11-6
Oklahoma City^3-3^6-6
SW Christian^3-3^7-8
John Brown^2-4^9-9
St. Gregory’s^2-4^7-7
Bacone^0-5^1-15
Last week
January 14
John Brown 88, Southwestern Christian 77
Mid-America Christian 92, Oklahoma City 78
Science and Arts of Oklahoma 98, Wayland Baptist 92
Southwestern Assemblies of God 71, St. Gregory 64
Texas Wesleyan 89, Bacone 53
January 16
Texas Wesleyan 83, John Brown 73
Southwestern Christian 64, Wayland Baptist 61
Southwestern Assemblies of God 78, Oklahoma City 75 (OT)
Mid-America Christian 105, St. Gregory’s 96
Science and Arts of Oklahoma 107, Bacone 97
This week
Thursday’s games
John Brown at Science and Arts of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City at St. Gregory’s
Southwestern Christian at Bacone
Wayland Baptist at Texas Wesleyan
Southwestern Assemblies of God at Mid-America Christian
Saturday’s games
John Brown at Bacone
Wayland Baptist at Southwestern Assemblies of God
Mid-America Christian at Southwestern Christian
Texas Wesleyan at St. Gregory’s
Oklahoma City at Science and Arts of Oklahoma
Texas Wesleyan (13-4, 4-2 Sooner Athletic Conference) got off to a hot start and led by as many as 16 points in the first half.
JBU (9-9, 2-4) cut the deficit to five at halftime and got as close as three points in the second half -- but the Golden Eagles couldn't get any closer in their first home game since Dec. 11.
"When you're up 16 on the road, it's human to get a little complacent," said Texas Wesleyan head coach Brennen Shingleton. "I walked in the locker room (at halftime) thinking their heads would be down, and they were fired up they were winning at the half. So I could tell we were going to be OK.
"The second half, I knew there were going to be runs. There was no way we were going to blow them out in here. It was going to be a tough, grind-out game. Thankfully our defense came in and, obviously, we outrebounded them."
On two occasions, Rams senior guard Jerell Ellis -- who came into the game averaging more than 18 points per game -- burned the Golden Eagles with big shots.
After John Brown pulled within 43-40 in the second half after a 3-pointer from Griffin Brady, a bucket by Marquis Waller and another trey from Josh Bowling, Ellis answered with a bucket to get the lead back to 45-40 and Wesleyan went on to extend the mark to 49-40.
JBU got within 65-59 later in the half and Ellis knocked down a 3-pointer to get the lead back to 68-59.
"We limited (Ellis) as far as a poor percentage, but he hit some big ones," said JBU head coach Jason Beschta. "He hit one three up late with Ricky (Roberts) on him. He's capable of hitting tough shots."
JBU pulled within 68-64 minutes later after another 3-pointer from Brady, but Sam Akano answered with a three-point play to get the lead back to seven points.
That was as close as JBU would get.
"John Brown's notorious for executing and we emphasized that (in practice Friday)," Shingelton said. "We had to get out of character and really concentrate on defending. We knew they were going to hit some shots, I just didn't think we would be able to sustain and defend for 40 minutes, but we really did. That was the amazing part. We just really locked in as a team and all five guys guarded the ball."
Texas Wesleyan led 12-2 early in the first half and had their highest advantage at 27-11 after a basket by Dion Rogers.
"They're obviously extremely talented," Beschta said of Texas Wesleyan. "Getting down (with) a team like that, I'm proud of the fact that we just didn't hand it in and get buried by 20 something here tonight. You just can't have a start like that. I think we defended for 30 minutes, 33 minutes maybe, but it just wasn't the first part of the game. They really got going. At the same time we weren't scoring real well."
Texas Wesleyan's defense held JBU to 40 percent shooting from the field on the Golden Eagles' home floor.
In the first half JBU shot 35 percent and only 1 of 9 from 3-point range.
Ellis led Texas Wesleyan with 20 points, while Rogers had 17, and B.J. Batts and Akano each had 12.
Brady led JBU with 22 points, including three 3-pointers, and 11 rebounds. Ricky Roberts finished with 17 points.
The loss snapped JBU's two game winning streak.
"You hate seeing this because you do feel like in some ways we took a step back tonight," Beschta said. "And yet for the last four to five days we have been showing significant improvement, so I don't want to let this ruin that. But, you can't take steps backwards. We've got to keep building on those things.
"If we can defend and take care of the ball and box out, we're going to be in games."
JBU returns to action on Thursday at Science and Arts of Oklahoma (8-5, 3-2) before traveling to Bacone (1-15, 0-5) on Saturday.
Texas Wesleyan 83, John Brown 71
Texas Wesleyan^37^46^--^83
John Brown^32^41^--^73
Texas Wesleyan (13-4, 4-2): Ellis 20, Rogers 17, Batts 12, Akano 12, Stubbs 8, Gracela 6, Buckley 4, Jeffery 2, Compton 2.
John Brown (9-9, 2-4): Brady 22, Roberts 17, Waller 6, Anderson 6, Moyer 5, Bowling 5, Joseph 4, Martinez 3, English 3, Smith 2.
Sports on 01/20/2016