FORT WORTH, TX: The 24th ranked Texas Wesleyan University Men's Basketball team (18-8, 11-5 SAC) took a thrilling 76-74 victory over Southwestern Assemblies of God University (18-8, 10-6 SAC) on the strength of a buzzer-beating three from
Branden Jenkins in front of a raucous crowd at the Sid Richardson Center Monday night.
SAGU held a three-point lead entering the final minute, but
Curtiss Anderson came up with a huge block.
Ryan Harris then fed Anderson the ball for a dunk to get the Rams within a point at 74-73. The Rams forced a SAGU miss with nine seconds to play, and
Juwan Jones raced up the floor. Jones drove the lane then flipped the ball out to Jenkins for a corner three as time expired causing The Sid to erupt.
The win lifts the Rams into a tie for the SAC lead at 11-5 in conference play as the conference leader, 15th ranked Oklahoma City, was idle until tomorrow night.
The Rams had been in control for much of the contest. A three from Jenkins followed by a dunk from Anderson stretched the lead to 13-points (52-39) with fifteen minutes to play.
Midway through the second half, a strong SAGU crowd got behind a frenzied Lion defense that forced seven turnovers on seven consecutive possessions. In a four minute and twenty-six second span, the Lions forced nine turnovers and jumped out to a 65-58 lead with 17 unanswered points.
Trailing 66-60 with just over five minutes to play.
Juwan Jones drilled a big three and
Curtiss Anderson made it a one-point game with an offensive put-back on Texas Wesleyan's next possession. From that point, the game saw four tie scores and two lead changes before Josh Swearingin hit a three for SAGU to push the score to 74-71 and set up Texas Wesleyan's last-minute heroics.
Jenkins and Anderson each posted a double-double. Jenkins finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Anderson went for 20 points and 15 boards. Jones added 11 points off the TXWES bench.
Cameron Hill led the Lions with 19 points.
The Rams outshot the Lions 46%-36% from the field and held a +11 rebounding margin. SAGU forced the Rams to commit 21 turnovers (six over their season average) including 15 in the second half. Meanwhile the Rams held the SAC's highest scoring offense nearly 19 points under its season average.
The Rams will return to action on Thursday, when they travel to Muskogee, OK, to take on Bacone College. That game is scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. start.
Ramblings
- The Rams lead the all-time series with SAGU 30-9 while they improved to 50-40 all-time in SAC play.
- This was the 13th game of the season in which at least two Rams have scored 20 or more points.
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Branden Jenkins is the SAC's leading scorer. He ranks seventh in the NAIA at 21.6 points per game.
- Texas Wesleyan leads the all-time series with their next opponent, Bacone College, 22-8.
- With just four games remaining on the schedule, the top eight teams in the Sooner Athletic Conference are separated by just three games.
