THE RUNDOWN
DBU punched their ticket to the Heartland Conference Championship for the fourth year in a row after defeating Oklahoma Christian 72-58 Saturday evening in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Patriots shot 56 percent from the field in the first half, extending their lead to as many as 21 with 10 minutes left in the first half.

The Patriots kept the Eagles at bay throughout the game despite a few scoring runs by the Eagles. OC cut the lead to six with 4:55 left in the ballgame. Senior Jordan Box led OC with 17 points on 4-12 shooting. Oklahoma Christian shot 70 percent from the free-throw line as a team, and grabbed 25 defensive rebounds as a team.

Zach Lord had a team-high 14 points and six rebounds, while Jonathyn Washington, Julian Miranda, and Jordan Manse all recorded nine points each. Carter Brown and JT Harris posted eight points each on the way to the win.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The Patriots won their 23rd game of the season.
- Zach Lord's 14 points were the most since the game at UAFS on January 19th.
- DBU had 50 on court points, opposed to just nine from the Eagles.

HEAD COACH BLAKE FLICKNER ON THE WIN
"Overall I thought we had a really good defensive effort, I thought guys played really hard and executed the game plan really well. (OC) is obviously really good on the glass and we knew coming in how important that was going to be. Zach gave us some great defense and took a couple charges to keep (Will) Lienhard off of the glass, the leading rebounder in the conference. What more could you ask for to be playing in a championship game on Sunday? Fun, fun game and I'm really proud of the way they pulled together today."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
39:43 - DBU led for 39:43 of the contest, and never trailed the entire game.
18- The Patriots had 18 assists, opposed to the 5 from OC.
16 – DBU scored 16 points off of turnovers, opposed to 10 from OC.
 
UP NEXT
The Patriots face No. 1 seed St. Edward's in the Heartland Conference Championship Sunday at 3:00 p.m.