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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Philip Brown
62
Winner Central Oklahoma UCO 11-2, 4-0
57
Missouri Western MWSU 5-5, 1-2
Winner
Central Oklahoma UCO
11-2, 4-0
62
Final
57
Missouri Western MWSU
5-5, 1-2
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Central Oklahoma UCO 27 35 62
Missouri Western MWSU 18 39 57

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

UCO Downs Griffons For Seventh Straight Win

Box Score

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (Dec. 20) – Philip Brown and Garen Wright pulled down big rebounds and made clutch free throws in the final seconds to lead Central Oklahoma past Missouri Western 62-57 here Saturday.
 
The Bronchos were ahead 58-57 with 15 seconds left when Brown was fouled while hauling in a Griffon miss and the 6-foot-7 senior calmly swished both charity tosses to bump the lead to 60-57.
 
Wright then rebounded MWSU's tying 3-point try with four seconds remaining and was quickly fouled.  The redshirt freshman drained the two foul shots to arrange the final margin and secure UCO's seventh straight win, the longest streak since a nine-game string in 2010-11.
 
The Bronchos, who knocked off defending national champion and No. 3-ranked Central Missouri on the road Thursday, improved to 11-2 overall and 4-0 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
 
"It was a tough, grind-it-out game that we found a way to win," head coach Terry Evans said.  "It says a lot about our team that we were able to come in here and win despite not playing our best."
 
Wright led the way, scoring all 15 of his points in the second half while adding a game-high nine rebounds and three assists.  Trai Jordan scored 11 points with seven rebounds and three steals, while Brown had 10 points, eight boards and four blocked shots.
 
UCO shot just 37.8 percent (17-of-45) from the field while committing a season-high 22 turnovers and made only 24-of-38 free throws (63.2 percent).  Jordan, a 58.6-percent foul shooter on the season, went 7-of-8 from the charity stripe.
 
The Bronchos led 27-18 after a  sloppy first half that saw the two teams combine to make just 17-of-54 shots (31.5 percent) and UCO appeared in control after going ahead 33-21 on Wright's 3-pointer 52 seconds into the second half.
 
Two Wright free throws a minute later still had the Bronchos on top by 12 (35-23), but MWSU started the chip away at the lead and final pulled even at 56-all on Cortrez Colbert's bucket with 1:46 remaining.
 
Jordan made one of two free throws at 1:15 to give UCO back the lead and Colbert tied it again at 0:57 by making one of two.
 
That free throw trend continued when Brown converted one of two attempts with 42 seconds left to put the Bronchos ahead 58-57, which led to the game-ending sequence by Brown and Wright.
 
UCO trailed by as many as four (17-13) in the first half and it was an 18-15 deficit with 8:13 left when the Bronchos ended the half with a 12-0 run to take a 27-18 lead into intermission.
 
Jacob Strassle had back-to-back layups and Jarred Bairstow a 3-pointer off a Wright assist to highlight that spurt.
 
UCO doesn't play again until resuming conference play Jan. 3 at home against Northwest Missouri.
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