Box Score (html)
WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Martell Collins capped off his week in style, setting a new career high in points for the second straight game as he scored 29 points to led the Bulldogs past Oklahoma Baptist 82-70 on Saturday afternoon at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
Joining Collins with a career game were
Markeise Champion, who scored a season-high 22 points, and
Juwan Newmen, who secured his third double-double of the year with 16 points and 19 rebounds.
Collins had 15 points in the first half as the Bulldogs built a lead of 39-31 at the break. OBU cut into that deficit and briefly took the lead at 62-61 with just over eight minutes to play, but Champion stepped up and hit the answer basket of the night for the Bulldogs with a triple of his own on the next possession. That basket started an 11-0 run by SWOSU that was the defining three-minute stretch of the game.
For Collins, he reached 20 points scored for the fourth straight game and the third time this week as the Bulldogs won all three of their games after snapping a four-game slide on Monday. Collins has averaged 26.3 points per game for the week, setting two new career-highs along the way. His running mate Champion also set a new career-high with 22 points by putting in 8-of-12 field goal attempts and 3-of-7 three-pointers.
Newmen controlled the paint with a season-best 19 rebounds, his third double-figure rebound effort in the past five games. He finishes the week averaging 13.6 points and 13.0 rebounds per game in three outings and he helped SWOSU to a 41-to-35 advantage on the backboards.
"I thought Martell, Markeise and Juwan really carried us tonight," SWOSU Head Coach
Bob Battisti said following the victory. "That's what good teams do, they pick each other up and those three really picked us up today. You can see Martell is very determined and focused and he's a good leader for our team, we're going to need more of that as we enter the homestretch of the season."
The Bulldogs move to 11-6 on the year and 7-4 in GAC play with the win, which concludes the first half of the conference season. SWOSU returns to action next weekend with two games in Arkansas, including a matchup with Arkansas Tech next Thursday in Russellville.
