SILOAM SPRINGS, AR – Despite three double-figure scorers, Texas Wesleyan Men's Basketball (9-11, 4-8 SAC) fell just short to John Brown Thursday night, 76-67.
 
Sam Lorenzen scored 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting, Juwan Jones chipped in 13 off the bench and Justin Flakes put in three buckets and four free throws for 10 points.
 
While the defense clamped down in the second half, so did the whistles. The second half featured 45 free throws – 24 for John Brown to help negate their 11-of-28 shooting (39.3 percent). 53 fouls in 40 minutes average out to a foul call every 45 seconds.
 
Rob Thomas fouled out in 16 minutes of action but still found time to haul in four boards and hit a bucket. Three other players finished one away from an early exit. John Brown's Josh Bowling – who hit 10-of-12 from the line – fouled out too, with another Eagle supporter off the bench.
 
Peyton Sallee led the Rams with a season-high eight rebounds to go with five points. Joe Cook-Green notched eight with two assists in 21 minutes.
 
Stats across the board were nearly even. Texas Wesleyan edged John Brown in second-chance points (11-9), bench points (33-29) and held John Brown to just two fast break points, while the Eagles had the slight edge in points off turnovers (18-17) and points in the paint (34-30).
 
After trailing 37-22, the Rams started to chip away at the deficit, scoring the last five points of the half on buckets from Diing Lwal Diing and Juwan Jones. The Golden Eagles scored the first six points to start the second half, but Texas Wesleyan clawed back with seven straight, down 43-34 with 14:48 to go. The times the Rams cut the deficit to ten in the latter stages, John Brown seemed to always come up with an answer.
 
The Rams made one last comeback with three minutes to play, down 74-60, getting four points from Flakes and three from Cook-Green.
 
RAMBLINGS
-Texas Wesleyan is still Top 40 in the country in field goal percentage (46.4 percent) despite being having a bit of an off-shooting night in Siloam Springs (42.1 percent).
 
-Of the 11 losses this season, five have been by single digits, including the last four. It's the difference between tenth and second place in the razor-thin and highly competitive Sooner Athletic Conference.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Bacone is next on the schedule (4 p.m. start) Saturday. Texas Wesleyan leads the all-time series 24-8, but has won 13-straight times over the Warriors. Bacone is 0-12 this season in the SAC, 2-15 overall.