FORT WORTH, TX - No. 24 Texas Wesleyan Men's Basketball (21-8, 14-6 SAC) held No. 9 John Brown (25-4, 16-3 SAC) to a measly 16 points in the first half and - despite a couple of late attempts from the Golden Eagles - mostly made JBU look pedestrian in a 69-56 victory, just the fourth loss of the year for the Golden Eagles who are now cemented into the No. 2 spot in the upcoming Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament, which begins Tuesday March 3 at the top four team's home venues.

That includes Texas Wesleyan, who is locked into the No. 3 seed for the quarterfinals. The Rams learned their opponent, the No. 6 seed University of Science and Arts-Oklahoma, late Thursday night after the Drovers victory over Langston locked them into another trip to Fort Worth. TXWES beat the Drovers twice this season, but both wins were by single digits.

The Rams defense in the first half against JBU was suffocating and harkened back to the team's dominant win at home over Wayland Baptist earlier in the year when the Pioneers managed just 22 first-half points. At one point, the Golden Eagles had 14 points ... and 14 turnovers, shooting just 26 percent through the first 20 minutes.

JBU made two runs, the first of which came at the start of the second half. Down 35-16, the Golden Eagles' leading scorer - Luke Harper - got hot after a scoreless first half. He hit four of his first five shots in the frame and scored nine of the team's 14 points during a 14-1 run that cut the deficit to just six, 36-30, with 13:55 to play. Senior Sam Lorenzen's swish from deep with 10:23 remaining calmed the comeback and pushed the Rams lead back to 12, 44-32. 

John Brown charged late with a slew of three-pointers and got as close as nine but the Rams weathered the storm.

The team's three seniors Lorenzen, Joe Cook-Green and Shaun Rost got the start. A balanced night that was more about defense than offense saw Lorenzen lead the scoring with 13 points with double-digit additions from Davon Berry (11) and Cook-Green (10). Akeem White scored eight off the bench, ending his double-digit scoring streak at 20 games.

The 56 points scored by the Golden Eagles was the second-worst scoring output of the season, only bested by Crowley's Ridge, who stole a 57-55 win in non-conference play. All of John Brown's losses this season have come on the road. TXWES improved to 14-3 at home.