BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) opener for the No. 11-ranked Southwestern College men's basketball team took place in Bartlesville, Okla. on Wednesday evening. The battle of top-15 powerhouses, Southwestern and No. 7-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan University, made for an interesting opener to conference play for both squads. In the end, though, the OKWU defense smothered the SC offense. The offensive struggles for Southwestern led to a 77-63 defeat at the hands of the Eagles.

Though the Builders started quickly maintaining a 10-6 lead with 16:45 on the clock in the first half, a subsequent 15-2 run from OKWU put them up by nine points in the early stages at 21-12 with 10:03 left on the clock. That nine-point lead for the Eagles would end up being the deficit at the intermission, though SC did get the score back to as close as five points at 25-20 with 5:55 left in the half. Neither side shot the ball particularly well in the period, though OKWU did seem to have crisper ball movement going on offense. They hit 16-of-36 tries in the first act, and Southwestern was held to just 11-of-32 from the floor. Each squad was atrocious from deep, as the Builders made just two threes on 14 heaves, while the Eagles were only 2-of-11. The 35-26 score was a defensive slugfest to say the least at the half.

It was not for a lack of effort by Southwestern that the game ended up the way that it did, as the Moundbuilders put together a strong run in the primary parts of the second half. They were able to cut the Eagle lead to as few as four points at the 44-40 mark with 14:50 to play, but could not hang on to that momentum, as Oklahoma Wesleyan would not be denied in the period. The Eagles hit 14 shots out of their 32 attempts, while SC was just 11-of-28. The Builders did hit seven threes in the ultimate half of the game, but took a total of 19 long-distance jumpers. At a much lesser volume, OKWU hit 4-of-7 shots from range and sunk all 10 of the shots from the charity stripe. They would stretch their lead until the horn, as Southwestern dropped their first battle of the 2022-23 campaign, 77-63.

It was a bit of an unusual offensive box score for the Builders, as Andrew O'Brien tied Cevin Clark with 19 points to lead the team. O'Brien shot 12 threes in the game, which is by far his career-high in that category. He did hit five of those attempts, which helped keep the Moundbuilders in the tilt. Clark had to scrap for every bucket in this one, hitting 6-of-17 shots and making 2-of-7 from long range. He was also 5-of-7 from the free-throw line. Cooper Pierce was also in double-figures, sinking five of his eight shots for 12 points.

Deng Bol was not involved much on offense, but did lead the team in assists, with four. He was followed by Trey Abasolo, with two, as well as O'Brien, Clark, Pierce and Jarvis Jennings with one apiece.

With O'Brien being on the perimeter for much of the game on offense, Abasolo was the squad's leading rebounder in the game. He racked up six boards in the tilt, while O'Brien and Pierce added five each. Clark and Bol had four rebounds to add to the team's total of 29 for the game. The squad was outrebounded 39-29 by the Eagles in this one. O'Brien and Bol were each credited with a steal in the game, as the team was not afforded a single blocked shot.

The Moundbuilders (5-1, 0-1 KCAC) have a date with the Ottawa University Braves on Saturday, November 19 at 5 p.m. inside Stewart Field House to look forward to, as they host their first KCAC matchup of the season in Winfield. Just after that, on Tuesday, November 22, the team will head out to the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kan. for their third conference bout of the young campaign.

--buildersports.com--