OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Despite a furious late rally to take the lead, SWOSU fell, 73-70, against Oklahoma City on Saturday afternoon in the team's final exhibition match of the 2015-16 season in Abe Lemons Arena on the campus of Oklahoma City University.
Juwan Newmen slammed down a two-handed dunk to open the scoring as the Dawgs rushed out to an 11-8 lead with 14:04 left on the clock. Oklahoma City responded with a quick 6-0 run over the next two minutes before SWOSU found the bottom of the basket again off two free throws by
Markeise Champion. The Stars managed to hold the Bulldogs at bay until the 7:40 mark when Champion knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game. However, OCU rallied back to scored eight of the final 11 points of the half to take a 35-33 lead into the break.
A pair of back-to-back 3-pointers for Oklahoma City with just over ten minutes to play in the game broke the game open after Colin Jennings had tied the game up at 48-48 with a pair of makes at the charity stripe. SWOSU would go over seven minutes without making a field goal, before dunk on the breakaway by
Ayo Ojo off the steal from Jennings cut the lead to 59-54 with 6:46 remaining in the game.
The Dawgs weathered the storm, and ripped off a 15-8 run highlighted by a pair of treys from
Nick Shoemaker to tie the game up with just over two minutes left in the game. Newmen put SWOSU up 68-67 at the charity stripe soon after.
Oklahoma City's Terrence Bonhomme put in a layup with 17.7 seconds to give the Stars the lead to set up some late drama, forcing a SWOSU timeout.
Keyshawn Perkins missed a layup out of the timeout, and the Bulldog would fall 73-70.
"We showed great toughness to get the lead after being down by nine points late," said SWOSU head coach
Bob Battisti. "Unfortunately, we didn't make a play in the final minute on two offensive possessions, and we didn't get a defensive stop. It's a great learning experience, but now we need to get prepared to face Lindenwood in the SWOSU Classic next week."
Champion led the team in scoring with 14 points off 4-of-5 shooting, and also led the Dawgs with seven rebounds, all on the defensive glass. Shoemaker was second with 12 points, all coming from beyond the arc.
Martell Collins and Jennings each had nine points.
SWOSU completes the exhibition portion of their series at 0-2. They will open the regular season November 13 against Lindenwood at the SWOSU Classic inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center. Tip-time is set for 7:30 p.m.
