UCO Falls To Stars In Exhibition

11/3/2014 9:53:00 PM

Mahlon Jones

Box Score

OKLAHOMA CITY (Nov. 3) – An early-game shooting slump put Central Oklahoma in a hole and the Bronchos never recovered against hot-shooting Oklahoma City in dropping a 98-83 exhibition game decision here Monday night.

UCO led 8-7 in the early going after two Garen Wright free throws, but the Bronchos missed their next five shots and OCU made five in a row in an 11-0 run to take the lead for good at 18-8.

The Stars ended up shooting 50 percent (13-of-26) from 3-point range, while UCO made only 4-of-17 long-range shots. The Bronchos also shot just 60 percent from the free throw line (27-of-45) and committed 19 turnovers.

Mahlon Jones led UCO with 23 points, with Wright adding 14 and Seth Heckart 11.

"We missed a bunch of free throws, almost 20 free throws and were awful on defense," head coach Terry Evans said. "We've got a bunch of new players who haven't been together very long so it was a good learning experience for us, but we didn't play well."

It was the first of two exhibition games this week for the Bronchos, who travel to Fayetteville, Ark. Friday to take on perennial Division I power Arkansas at 7 p.m. UCO opens the regular season Nov. 14-15 at the MIAA/GAC Challenge in Tahlequah.

The Bronchos never recovered from the early 10-point deficit, though back-to-back 3-pointers by Heckart cut OCU's lead to 22-18 at the 10:55 mark of the first half.

UCO was still within four at 38-34 with 5:58 remaining following a driving layup by Jones, but the Stars came back with seven straight points to make it 45-34. It was a 13-point deficit (55-42) before Jones hit a floating 13-footer with 49 seconds left to make it 55-44 at intermission.

OCU made three straight 3-pointers early in the second half in pushing its lead to 17 (66-49) and the Stars still had a 17-point cushion at 74-57 when UCO attempted to get back in the game.

Wright had five points in an 8-0 spurt that pulled the Bronchos within 74-65 and Reggie Sloan made two foul shots with 9:48 left to keep it a nine-point deficit at 78-69.

OCU responded with a 7-1 run to extend its margin to 15 (85-70) with 8:15 to play and Central got no closer than 11 the rest of the way.

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