Bison Rally Past UCO

Article Date

November 18, 2005

Oklahoma Baptist knocked off its second straight NCAA Division II opponent Friday night with an 80-75 win over Central Oklahoma at the Eagles Nest at Oklahoma Christian.

The Bison beat the Bronchos with the Bison's go-to-man, Frank Benson, spending the majority of the time on the bench due to foul trouble. Benson played fewer than 15 minutes, but still managed to score 13 points.

Benson, up to the UCO game, averaged 33.5 points a game.

Julius Hurd made up for Benson's lost points scoring a game high 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Two other Bison scored in double figures with Kortney Smith scoring 15 and Justin Benson dumping in 13 points.

"I thought we had several guys step up," said head coach Doug Tolin. "I think all the post men took up for Frank in terms of offensive production. Julius picked up his points and Justin was better than he's been offensively. I also thought the guards really competed and kept us in the game."

Hurd, a junior transfer out of Dallas, Texas, constantly battled offensively and defensively with the Bronchos big men as he picked up eight rebounds to go along with 7-of-10 shooting from the free throw line.

"I thought he played with great effort," said Tolin. "He played essentially the whole second half without a break. He rebounded, he scored and he really defended. He looked like a real player for us; kind of like the player we recruited."

The Bison led early in the game at 8-7, but fell behind and didn't regain the lead until 13:45 in the second half at 50-49. That lead lasted just 15 seconds before UCO took the lead back at 52-50.

The Bronchos held their lead until 1:29 left in the game when Frank Benson hit a free throw to tie the game at 74.

Benson, who was playing with four fouls, hit a field goal to take a 76-74 lead and then added a pair of free throws to push the lead to 78-74. Hurd and Smith both added a pair of free throws to put the game away at 80-75.

The Bronchos had chances to cut the lead and tie the game, but missed three straight point-blank attempts and never regained the lead after Benson put the Bison up by two with 1:08 to play.

UCO held leads as big as 12 (27-15) in the first half and held an eight-point lead at 66-58 with 7:42 to play.

OBU had to deal with UCO's full court press and high pressured half court defense that forced 13 turnovers in the first half alone. The Bronchos got 18 first half points just off of Bison turnovers.

"I thought we stood around the first half and that caused a lot of problems," said Tolin.

Tolin said the second half was the difference in the turnover battle and was proud of the way his team handled the pressure.

OBU reduced those turnovers significantly in the second half by just turning the ball over six times reducing UCO's chances to pull away.

"When you only turn the ball over six times against that type of pressure you've done a pretty good job," said Tolin.

OBU moved to 5-0 on the year and gave Central Oklahoma a season opening loss to put the Bronchos at 0-1.

This was the first time since the 1986-87 season that the Bison and Bronchos played each other in the regular season. UCO still holds the series lead at 58-55.

OBU next plays Arkansas Baptist in the second match-up of the Sleep-In Classic at Oklahoma Christian Saturday at 6 p.m. OC plays UCO in the following game.