Men's Basketball
The Patriots Men's Basketball Team advanced to the NCCAA Central Region championship game with a win over Oklahoma Wesleyan University , on Friday night. The Patriots rode the hot shooting of Junior Nick Michels, who scored 18 points on six of 12 shooting, to pick up the 60-55 win.
With the win DBU improved to 11-18 overall, while OWU fell to 11-20.
DBU fell behind early in the game but answered with a quick run to take the lead and kept the lead for the remainder of the first half. The Patriots used 12 points off of four of five shooting from Michels to build a 32-27 lead at the break.
OWU only shot 40% from the field in the first half because of stingy man to man defense played by the Patriots. DBU also held them to 23% from beyond the arch and forced them to commit six turnovers. The Patriots shot 37% from the field in the first half and hit two of nine three-point attempts.
The second half saw each team go on a significant run, with OWU taking the first run to go head by 11 points with eight minutes to play in the game. DBU took two consecutive timeouts to refocus their game and then made an adjustment on defense out of the second timeout.
The Patriots came out of the timeout in a full court all out trapping press, which forced OWU to start turning the ball over. DBU grabbed back-to-back steals and scored consecutive buckets to cut the lead to seven. The Eagles had trouble breaking the press and when they did, they forced up bad shots.
DBU took advantage of the lack of discipline on offense the Eagles were showing and eventually tied the game with a couple minutes to play. The Patriots then drew up a play for Freshman Jordan Alexander, who rolled of a screen and received a perfectly placed pass from Sophomore Justin Pinckney. Alexander laid the ball in for the go ahead bucket and DBU never gave the lead back after that point.
The Patriots for the game shot 41.1% from the field, 13% from beyond the arch, and 70.6% from the charity line. DBU committed 12 turnovers to 16 for the Eagles but were out rebounded 33 to 32.
Junior Dwight Coleman helped the Patriots on the boards by grabbing 10 rebounds and he scored 13 points, while Junior Erik Villarreal contributed with five assists and a season high five steals.
The Patriots will take on Central Baptist College tomorrow , at the Burg Center , with a 2:00 start, for a bid to the 2007 NCCAA National Tournament.
