Bison avenge earlier loss to St. Gregory’s

February 12, 2005

Oklahoma Baptist picked up their second victory in row for the first time this year in the conference with a 72-62 win over St. Gregory's University Saturday night in the Noble Complex. OBU got revenge Saturday on the Cavalier after SGU knocked off the Bison Jan. 6 61-60 at St. Greg's.

"I hope its rolling now," said Head Coach Tolin. "Every week is a tough week in this league. We just got to get ready to play. We have to come out and play with the same effort we've been playing with this week."

Frank Benson led the way once again for OBU with 16 points. Benson averaged 16.5 points a game over the last two games with 17 at OCU and 16 against SGU.

"Frank's going to be consistent every night," said Tolin. "He's going to score the basketball down in the paint."

OBU also got double figures out of Robert Hart (14), Leonard Mosley (13) and Justin Benson (13). Hart had a double-double with 11 rebounds.

"We have to have Robert and Leonard playing like they have this week," said Tolin. "It takes more than Robert and Leonard as well to win these games. You can look down the bench and you can see seven or eight guys contributing."

Diogo Mello led the way for the Cavs with 16 points to match Benson's game high.

OBU moved to 6-7 in the Sooner Athletic Conference and 18-8 overall with the win in the Holy Wars rivalry over SGU. SGU falls 6-7 and 9-16.

In the first half the Bison worked their way out to a 15-8 lead after Evan Grace hit a bucked from beyond the arc and Frank Benson hit a lay up. OBU took their first double digit lead at 11 after Bailey Jones nailed three and Benson hit another lay up to give the Bison a 20-9 lead with 10:46 left in the half. OBU took their biggest lead of the half at 14 on two occasions at 32-18 and 34-20.

St. Gregory's began to work its back into the game after Diogo Mello hit a pair of free throws and Tarin Baker added a bucket to pull the Cavaliers within nine at 38-29.

OBU pushed the lead back out to 12 after Andrew Bryant added a field goal and a free throw, SGU brought the game back within eight at the end half. Tillman Moses hit a couple of free throws and Carl Dunbar hit a jumper to make the score 41-33 at the intermission.

In the second half OBU got up 45-35 only two minutes in before St. Greg's began to make a run much like they did at SGU.

Mello ignited a 7-0 run for the Cavs that pulled SGU within two at 49-47 with 13:49 left to play. That was as close as SGU came as OBU came up with clutch baskets down the stretch to pull away.

St. Greg's pulled within eight with 6:58 left, but the Bison went on a 7-0 run to jump out to their largest lead of the night at 70-55 with 3:32 left.

OBU now heads to Northwestern Thursday before traveling to USAO Saturday and John Brown Monday.