John Brown's men's basketball team has shown the ability to rally back from double-digit deficits this season, but on Saturday, the 21st-ranked Golden Eagles' comeback wasn't enough.
JBU trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half against Mid-America Christian and fought back to take a lead. But the Evangels made more plays down the stretch and handed the Golden Eagles their second straight loss 71-66 at Bill George Arena.
Sooner Athletic Conference Basketball Standings
MEN^CONFERENCE^OVERALL
^W-L^W-L
Wayland Baptist^7-1^12-4
Langston^6-2^14-2
Science and Arts^6-2^13-3
SW Assemblies of God^6-3^13-4
John Brown^6-3^12-5
Southwestern Christian^5-3^10-6
Mid-America Christian^3-5^10-6
Oklahoma City^3-5^8-6
Panhandle State^3-5^8-6
Texas Wesleyan^3-6^8-9
Central Christian^2-6^8-7
Bacone^0-9^2-12
Last week
January 10
Science and Arts 64, John Brown 63
Wayland Baptist 76, Oklahoma City 75
Southwestern Assemblies of God 90, Langston 66
Southwestern Christian 64, Panhandle State 59
Mid-America Christian 88, Bacone 62
Texas Wesleyan 73, Central Christian 67
January 12
Mid-America Christian 71, John Brown 66
Panhandle State 90, Oklahoma City 86
Southwestern Assemblies of God 101, Central Christian 99 (OT)
Wayland Baptist 77, Soutwestern Christian 75
Science and Arts 90, Bacone 80
Langston 82, Texas Wesleyan 77
This week
Tuesday’s games
Panhandle State at Wayland Baptist (n)
Langston at Central Christian (n)
Thursday’s games
John Brown at Panhandle State
Southwestern Christian at Southwestern Assemblies of God
Oklahoma City at Texas Wesleyan
Mid-America Christian at Langston
Science and Arts at Central Christian
Bacone at Wayland Baptist
Saturday’s games
John Brown at Wayland Baptist
Southwestern Assemblies of God at Oklahoma City
Bacone at Panhandle State
Mid-America Christian at Central Christian
Langston at Science and Arts
Texas Wesleyan at Southwestern Christian
JBU also trailed by 10 points in the second half at Science and Arts (Okla.) last Thursday and rallied to take a lead, only to have their five-game winning streak snapped in a 64-63 loss.
"We've been in this league long enough, we've seen enough of these games to know you can't find yourselves in holes all the time and have to fight back like this," said JBU head coach Jason Beschta. "Both this game and last game we were down double digits and we gave ourselves a chance and just didn't make some of the plays down the stretch. I think defensively our talking wasn't there tonight, which led to some miscues on things that were really costly. On the offensive end, honestly, we had some good possessions even late, but we missed some shots."
MACU jumped out to an 11-0 lead Saturday and led until 6 minutes, 2 seconds left in the game when JBU took a 57-56 lead on a fast flurry of plays.
Trailing 56-53, the Golden Eagles cut the deficit to 56-55 when Jake Caudle scored off the glass. Desmond Kennedy then stole the inbounds pass and scored to put JBU in front for the first time.
The Golden Eagles (12-5, 6-3) then seemed like they might be able to get a little bit of momentum going. JBU forced a MACU turnover and Densier Carnes cashed it in with a dunk on the other end to give the Golden Eagles a 59-56 lead, their biggest of the night.
The lead would be short-lived.
MACU scored the next four points on jump shots by Justin Bogle and Dominick Ford to take a 60-59 lead with 3:30 left.
The lead changed twice more, including JBU taking a 63-62 advantage with 1:24 left after two free throws from Josh Bowling.
MACU answered with a three-point play from Anthony Black, who's floater swished through the net plus the foul for a 65-63 lead.
After JBU's Rokas Grabliauskas missed a 3-pointer on the other end, Black supplied the dagger with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Evangels in front 68-63 with 29 seconds remaining.
MACU (10-6, 3-5) would go on to hit 3 of 4 from the foul line to close out the victory.
"It's kind of been our message to our guys all year," MACU coach Josh Gamblin said. "It's going to be really hard. And we've had this same game almost three out of our last four. We led at halftime against SCU (Southwestern Christian). We led at halftime against USAO (Science and Arts), and we lost both of them. We just said guys it's going to be hard. Teams are going to make runs.
"John Brown is an NAIA national tournament team and Jason does an awesome job with them. They were going to make a run. They're really good. Jake Caudle is an All-American. Bowling -- first of all those guys have been here like 25 years I think-- they are really good. We just stuck with it. We executed in a tough situation and hopefully this is a break-through win for us."
Black led MACU with 19 points, 15 of which were scored in the second half.
"A.B. -- he's worked really hard," Gamblin said. "I don't think he's had the season he's wanted. He's worked really hard for us. ... I thought he did it on the defensive end too. Chasing Jake Caudle around all night was a really hard thing to do. Proud of him and it's just good to see our kids have some success for 40 minutes."
Zach Sawyer scored all 12 of his points in the first half for MACU, while Bogle added 11.
Caudle led JBU with 19 points, while Brenton Toussaint had 13 and Bowling 10.
The Golden Eagles' recent struggles shooting the basketball continued, hitting 21 of 45 shots overall and only 5 of 21 from behind the 3-point line.
JBU returns to action at Panhandle State (Okla.) on Thursday before playing at Wayland Baptist on Saturday.
"Everybody goes through stretches during the season," Beschta said. "It can go either way. It can be something where guys are going to be down and we lose close games, or we're going to take this and help right the ship and understand we can be better in some of these areas. Our commitment level to those things just has to improve."
Mid-America Christian 71, John Brown 66
Mid-America Christian^36^35^--^71
John Brown^25^41^--^66
Mid-America Christian (10-6, 3-5): Black 19, Sawyer 12, Bogle 11, William 9, Ford 9, Thompson 5, Perry 4, Beauregard 2.
John Brown (12-5, 6-3): Caudle 19, Toussaint 13, Bowling 10, Kennedy 8, Grabliauskas 6, Carnes 6, Bailey 4.
Sports on 01/16/2019