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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Trai Jordan
72
Missouri Western MWSU 12-15
73
Winner Central Oklahoma UCO 20-9
Missouri Western MWSU
12-15
72
Final
73
Central Oklahoma UCO
20-9
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Missouri Western MWSU 35 37 72
Central Oklahoma UCO 26 47 73

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Big Rally Lifts UCO Past Griffons

EDMOND (March 2) – Hot-shooting Missouri Western had Central Oklahoma on the ropes early in the second half of Monday's Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Post-season Tournament battle at Hamilton Field House before the inside-outside combination of Philip Brown and Seth Heckart sparked a dramatic comeback.
 
Brown and Heckart combined for 26 second-half points as the Bronchos overcame a 17-point deficit to pull out a tense 73-72 victory, taking the final lead on Brown's follow shot with 11 seconds left and then using stout defense to thwart the Griffons' last chance.
 
MWSU's Cortrez Colbert missed a tightly contested 12-footer jumper with three seconds remaining and Garen Wright corralled the errant shot to stamp UCO's ticket to Kansas City, Mo. for the quarterfinals. Click here for Tickets to Kansas City!  
It was the fifth straight win for the Bronchos, who improved to 20-9 in reaching the 20-win plateau for the 22nd time in school history and the eighth under 13-year head coach Terry Evans.
 
"It didn't look very good for us with the way we played in the first half and to start the second, but our guys just never quit," said Evans, whose team will take on Central Missouri at 6 p.m. Thursday.  "We started making some shots and created a few turnovers that got us back in the game.
 
"We've got a bunch of fighters on this team and they just refused to lose.  It was a great team effort and we got a big lift from the crowd tonight as well."
 
Brown and Heckart finished with 19 points apiece to lead the way.  Brown made 6-of-10 shots in the paint and 7-of-8 free throws in addition to pulling down 10 rebounds, while Heckart drilled 5-of-8 attempts from beyond the arc and 4-of-5 foul shots.
 
Cal Andrews also came up big with 12 points and four steals and Trai Jordan chipped in nine points and 10 rebounds.
 
MWSU shot a sizzling 64.7 percent from long range, hitting 6-of-8 in the second half and 11-of-17 for the game.
 
UCO led most of the early going and was up 21-15 with 5:52 left before the Griffons made four 3-pointers during a 20-5 run to end the half in taking a 35-26 lead.
 
MWSU then scored the first eight points of the second half to push its advantage to 17 at 43-26 and appeared ready to put the Bronchos away.
 
But UCO battled back with a 22-5 scoring spurt and pulled even at 48-all on Heckart's step-back trey from the top of the key with 11:02 left to play.
 
It was close the rest of the way, though the Griffons had a four-point lead at 63-59 with 4:46 left.  Brown split two free throws, Darrius Bryson scored on a tip-in and Brown  made a layup to put UCO on top 64-63 at the 3:28 mark.
 
MWSU went back ahead and was up 72-69 after two Colbert free throws at 1:09, but the Griffons didn't score again.
 
Heckart swished two free throws at 1:00 to make it 72-71 and Brown rebounded a Griffon miss at 0:34.  The senior forward then rebounded Wright's missed 3-pointer and scored on the put-back at 0:11 to give the Bronchos their final lead.
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