Game Statistics
ADA, Okla. (Jan. 13) -- This one was over by halftime.
Central Oklahoma ripped off a pair of quick-hitting scoring runs in the opening 20 minutes to grab a commanding lead and raced past East Central 106-88 here Wednesday night in easily winning a showdown of the top two scoring teams in the Lone Star Conference.
The Tigers entered the game averaging a league-leading 92.8 points a game to UCO's 89.5, but the Bronchos had their way with ECU in opening up a big 64-43 halftime spread and went on to break the century mark for the third time this season.
It was the eighth straight win for the two-time defending champion Bronchos in the LSC North Division opener, who improved to 12-4 on the year.
“We knew it was going to be an up-and-down game and we did a great job of running our offense and sharing the ball,” said UCO coach Terry Evans, whose team returns home to meet Southeastern Oklahoma at 8 p.m. Saturday. “We got a little careless with the ball in the second half, but it's always good to win on the road in this league.”
The Bronchos put six players in double figures and shot 56.4 percent (44-of-78) from the field, getting assists on 30 of those baskets.
Dauntae Williams led UCO with another brilliant all-around performance, scoring 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting to go with 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals. Chris Rhymes had a season-high 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
The Bronchos also got 13 points and eight rebounds from Tyler Phillips, 13 points and six boards from Brent Friday, 11 points, a career-high 10 assists and four steals from Eric Cazenave and 10 points and four assists from Shane Carroll.
UCO had just a 28-25 lead 10 minutes into the game, but got seven points from Williams and a pair of 3-pointers from Phillips in a three-minute, 19-3 run that quickly bumped the advantage to 47-28 at the 7:30 mark.
The Bronchos still had a comfortable lead at 51-39 late in the half before unleashing another devastating spurt, with Williams scoring five points and Friday four in a 12-3 run that took just two minutes and made it 60-39.
UCO was up 64-41 at intermission and the lead peaked at 29 (79-49) with 13:44 left to play on Friday's steal and driving layup. The Bronchos were still in command at 94-70 after a Blake Livingston dunk before some careless turnovers led to 11 straight ECU points that cut the lead to 96-85.
The lead was never in doubt, however, with UCO coming back with 10 quick points -- getting fast-break dunks from Cazenave and Williams -- to go up 106-85 in the final minute.
