Texas Wesleyan runs by shorthanded Golden Eagles
■ The JBU men were playing the school’s first home event of the season.
John Brown’s long-awaited home debut didn’t go as the Golden Eagles hoped.
Texas Wesleyan scored the first 14 points of the game and rolled from there to a 78-48 victory against a short-handed JBU team at Bill George Arena.
JBU was missing three key players in All-American guard Luke Harper, point guard Rokas Grabliauskas and post Nemanja Obradovic because of covid-19 protocols.
The game was the first home athletics event of the school year for John Brown. The Golden Eagles’ first three scheduled games were either canceled or postponed because of covid-19 issues. JBU did open its season at Science and Arts of Oklahoma on Tuesday where it lost 91-79.
“Both games we’ve played we’ve dug ourselves a hole early,” said JBU coach Jason Beschta. “Sometimes it takes some veteran players to start a game, some practice to start a game well. Some of it we’re thrusting some guys into the starting lineup that would be backups or might not play. We’re going to have to play with that until we can start adding guys back a little bit. But you’ve got to start games better. You’ve got to find a way to at least get stops if you’re not hitting shots.”
Vydal Bradford hit two early 3-pointers for Texas Wesleyan and Peyton Sallee also had a trey as the Rams (4-1, 1-1 SAC) rolled out to an early lead.
JBU responded with an 8-0 run, including a pair of 3-pointers from Densier Carnes, to get within 14-8.
Texas Wesleyan re-established control with a 12-0 run to take a 26-8 lead.
The Rams led 34-19 at halftime and pushed the lead further in the second half.
“Jason’s short-handed right now and he’s going to have a really good team,” said Texas Wesleyan coach Brennen Shingleton. “And really this whole year is really difficult because it’s not a true representation of everybody’s team. We’re all having to figure out ways to manufacture things on a day-to-day basis because there’s so many unknowns.”
The Rams hit 29 of 50 (58 percent) from the field, while holding JBU to just 15 of 55.
Bradford led Texas Wesleyan with 20 points, while Sallee had 14 and Christopher Coley 12.
Carnes had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Golden Eagles, while Noah Taylor had eight and James Beckom six.
“We’re thankful for an opportunity to play, and guys that are getting a chance to play minutes right now need to treasure those minutes and fight to show us they should keep getting minutes as we add back three starters,”
Beschta said. “It’s given us some valuable minutes for guys that I don’t know if we would have gotten minutes from early in the year. There’s at least one of them that’s already stepped up and is going to be in our rotation no matter what. Noah Taylor, I mean he comes in confident as a freshman and really adds something. I think when we put him in there with our regular rotation players he stands out even more.”
JBU was scheduled to be back in action Saturday against Southwestern Assemblies of God. Results were not available at presstime.
USAO 91, JBU 79
CHICKASHA, Okla. — Freshman Noah Taylor poured in five triples, but a slow start and short bench proved too much for the Golden Eagles as Science & Arts (Okla.) upended the No. 13 John Brown University men’s basketball team on Tuesday night inside the Drover Fieldhouse.
Without seasoned veterans in junior Luke Haper, senior Rokas Grabliauskas and sophomore Nemanja Obradovich, the Golden Eagles (0-1, 0-1 Sooner Athletic) started the contest out just 2 of 10 from the field, quickly needing to play catch-up for the remainder of the game.
Taylor’s second triple of the game cut the Drover (7-0, 2-0) lead to just six, 27-21, with just under eight to play in the first half, but the hosts, coming off a strong win at previously undefeated MidAmerica Christian (Okla.), carried an eight-point lead into the intermission on 14-of-29 shooting in the first half.
USAO’s lead quickly swelled to 12, 45-33, but triples from Taylor (twice) and sophomore D.J. Ellis helped the visitors climb back to within three, 47-44.
John Brown continued riding its new-found offensive swagger, getting a bucket from junior Ira Perrier and capped off the 16-5 run with a Densier Carnes triple to pull within one, 50-49.
A gorgeous and-one from redshirt freshman Alex Kinsey helped break a slump — keeping John Brown within three, 5855, but the Drovers shot 51 percent in the second half, and 18 Golden Eagle turnovers proved too much down the stretch as the hosts returned the lead to double digits, where it remained for the majority of the remainder of the night.
Off the bench, Taylor finished 5 of 11 from the field, while Carnes added 14 points, seven boards and a career-high six assists. Junior Ira Perrier pieced together a 12-point, nine-rebound performance while newcomer D.J. Ellis added 12 points in his first career start. Kinsey also added 10 points in the setback.
USAO was paced by a trio of 20-point performances, headlined by Elvin Rodriguez’s 29-point evening. Cameron Hines crossed the 1,000-point mark with 22 points while Gerard Makunte shot a perfect 8-of-8 from the field and knocked down all four free throw attempts to contribute 21 points.
Up next
The JBU men’s team is scheduled to host Langston (Okla.) at 6 p.m. on Monday at Bill George Arena.