Drovers Let Two Get Away

CHICKASHA – The women missed a late three-pointer to take the lead, and the men let double-digit leads get away from them two different times as John Brown took a doubleheader from the University of Science and Arts Thursday night at the USAO Fieldhouse.

The USAO women dropped their fifth in a row 58-54, and the men lost for the second time in as many games 72-62.

Led by Katie Sterling’s 18 points, the women erased a 13-point second-half deficit in the final minutes. The Drovers dug themselves into a hole in the first half with poor shooting, but the defense was there, forcing JBU into forced shots as the shot-clock ticked down.

USAO only had 21 points at halftime and much of that was due to shooting only 15.4 percent from field for the first 14 minutes of the game.

Late in the second half, the Drovers forced turnover after turnover and outscored JBU 22-14 off takeaways and 8-0 off fast-break points. With just under a minute remaining, Stephanie Russell missed a three-pointer that would have given USAO the lead. And Sterling missed a well-guarded, game-tying jumper with four seconds left.

“We only really played five minutes of the game,” Head Coach Jay Niehues said. “We’ve got to start playing the whole game like that.”

The men took a commanding lead early in the game by hitting their first 7-of-10 from the field including two Ike Onwuchekwa threes. But JBU’s five first-half three-pointers kept them in the game. Nearly half of the Golden Eagles’ first-half buckets came from three-point land, and it got worse in the second half for the Drovers.

USAO jumped out to another huge lead to start the second half, but again, JBU answered with a barrage of three-pointers. The visitors had 10 field goals in the second half. Eight of those were three-pointers.

JBU’s Adam Workman led all scorers with 21 points on 6-of-9 from three, and Brandon Cole added 17 points – all coming from threes or free throws. J.J. Walsh led USAO with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Jose Nava scored 14 points and added 10 rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting. Marcus Hines had 12 points, and Onwachekwa finished with 10.

The women fall to 9-8, 2-6 while the men fall to 8-10, 4-4. Both teams travel to Southern Nazarene on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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