WEATHERFORD – The SWOSU men's basketball team welcomed Central Oklahoma to the Pioneer Event Center on Thursday night and used a fierce defense to shut down the Bronchos in a 65-57 victory.

The Bronchos came into the game scoring an average of 86.7 points per game, while SWOSU had only allowed 72 points per game. The Dawgs would be the ones to back up their numbers, holding UCO to the lowest scoring output of the year by 21 points. UCO's previous scoring low had come one week prior against No. 3 West Texas A&M when they scored 78 points.

Thursday's game was closely contested in the first half before a late run allowed the Dawgs to hold a seven-point lead heading into the break. SWOSU was able to build the lead thanks to a 9-4 advantage in offensive rebounds giving them a six-point boost in second chance points.

In the second half the Dawgs were able to lead wire to wire, maintaining their lead thanks to efforts from both Tobias Roland and Eli Al-Debaran who combined for 40 points on the night on 15-for-27 shooting. They hit a combined five three-pointers in the second half with an additional three coming in the first.

MJ Warrior had a few clutch buckets in the final minutes of play which helped ice the win. His eight points made him the Dawgs' third leading scorer and he also added a team high seven assists without a turnover.

Final numbers had the teams at near identical shooting marks – 38.5% vs 38.2% – in favor of SWOSU. Both teams also finished at 25% from the three-point line and each team committed 10 turnovers, but it was SWOSU who won the rebounding battle 42-35 with 13 offensive boards in total.

The next game will take the Bulldogs to Lawton, Oklahoma to face off against Cameron on Tuesday, November 26th at 6:00 pm in what will be the final non-conference game before the GAC schedule gets going in December.