SAGU slips past JBU men

n Short-handed Golden Eagles come up short in closing minutes.

Courtesy of JBU Sports Information John Brown University's Mateo Habazin works for a shot around a crowd of Southwestern Assemblies of God defender during the Golden Eagles' 77-71 loss at Bill George Arena on Thursday.
Courtesy of JBU Sports Information John Brown University's Mateo Habazin works for a shot around a crowd of Southwestern Assemblies of God defender during the Golden Eagles' 77-71 loss at Bill George Arena on Thursday.

A short-handed John Brown University men's team ran out of gas late in Thursday's 77-71 loss against Southwestern Assemblies of God inside Bill George Arena.

The six-point difference was the Lions' (19-8, 11-6 Sooner Athletic Conference) largest lead in a game that featured 14 ties and nine lead changes. A 3-pointer by Joshua Swearinger followed a bucket by Jalen Petillo with 52 seconds remaining gave SAGU the separation it needed. The duo combined for 40 points with Swearinger scoring 18 of his team's 31 points off the bench.

"(Swearinger) makes a big shot there in the corner, and we would probably say if we were going to leave someone open it would have been him, but he nailed it," said JBU coach Jason Beschta. "That three was very deep and it was contested, so it was a big shot and I don't fault my guys there. Then (Petillo) made a big play. He's a senior now and it's his last go around. He just hit big shots and made big plays."

Beschta said he was extra familiar with SAGU coach Delton Deal going all the way back to when Beschta coached at Oklahoma Wesleyan from 2011-14 and Deal was coaching at York College.

"His teams are always extremely tough and play extremely hard," Beschta said. "We came into this game thinking, 'how can we be tougher and play harder?' It was hard to do because we were a little thin tonight as far as the rotation in our lineup, and I think showed a little bit late."

The Golden Eagles (15-11, 9-8) were without four players due to injuries, including regulars Marquis Waller and Brenton Toussaint. Back-up point guards Darrell Jones and Jaylon Rucker also were sidelined. With a thin bench, Beschta went with a larger starting lineup than usual because it "was our best five."

"We were missing some serious guys there," Beschta said. "In a game against a very athletic team like this we really could have used some of the help because we struggled with some things. Our guys did a good job of adjusting to what we had to do and now we've just got to regroup."

The Lions still limited SAGU to 37.1 percent shooting from the field and kept them well under their 91 points per game average. The added size did help JBU outrebound SACU 40-37. But with two point guards out, that resulted in freshman Rokas Grabliauskas playing a career-high 33 minutes and likely contributed JBU losing the turnover battle, 21-11.

"In that close of a game that's basically tied most of the way, and especially in the last few minutes of the game, they got 10 more possessions than we got," Beschta said. "So it was amazing that we were even still in the game. That's a testament to how hard we were playing. You can't allow that to happen and we didn't make some good decisions there. In the end, they made some big plays in the last couple of minutes of the game."

John Brown was led by Josh Bowling with 23 points. He hit a 3-pointer and then blocked Desmond Medder's shot at the buzzer on the other end to help the Golden Eagles secure a 36-34 halftime lead. Densier Carnes and Jake Caudle contributed 14 points and 13 points, respectively, for JBU.

SW Assemblies of God 77, John Brown 71

Southwestern 34 43 -- 77

John Brown 36 35 -- 71

SW Assemblies of God (19-8, 11-6): Petillo 22, Swearinger 18, Sims 9, Medder 6, Hill 6, Farmer 5, Mitchell 4, Tipton 3, Davis 2, Kashila 2.

John Brown (15-11, 9-8): Bowling 23, Carnes 14, Caudle 13, Grabliauskas 8, Habazin 8, Smith 5.

John Brown 78, Bacone (Okla.) 55

Caudle scored 15 of his game-high 18 points in the second half to help JBU snap a five-game road losing skid 78-55 win inside Palmer Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

After hitting just 10 of 27 field goal attempts in the first half, the Golden Eagles converted 17 of 32 in the second half, (53 percent) as the Warriors (5-21, 1-15) committed 10 of their 16 turnovers in the final 20 minutes of play.

"We did a good job tonight, and we committed to being focused defensively," Beschta said. "We'll need more of this down the stretch if we want to compete and finish strong. It's great to have different guys step up for us, including Densier (Carnes) and Mateo (Habazin). They both went perfect from the floor tonight and helped us go into a tough environment and get a timely win."

Carnes, a freshman, had a career night by shooting 6 of 6 from the floor to finish with career highs in points (15) and rebounds (8). Habazin, a sophomore, hit both of his field goal attempts and all four of his free throws to chip in eight points.

Grabliauskas knocked down 4-of-5 from behind the arc to contribute 14 points. Despite a poor shooting night, Waller hustled to six boards and a team-high five assists.

With the game still within reach for Bacone midway through the second half, the Golden Eagles jumped to a 13-2 rally over a 4:02 span that was capped off by Nathan Corder's 3-pointer in the corner to build a 70-47 lead with 5:08 left in the game.

Up next

The Golden Eagles were scheduled to return to action at home Saturday against Texas Wesleyan. Results were not available at presstime.

John Brown is back on the court Thursday at Panhandle State in Goodwell, Okla.

Sports on 02/18/2018