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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Jordan London
68
Nebraska-Kearney UNKMBB 17-10, 13-8
75
Winner Central Oklahoma UCO 14-13, 10-11
Nebraska-Kearney UNKMBB
17-10, 13-8
68
Final
75
Central Oklahoma UCO
14-13, 10-11
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Nebraska-Kearney UNKMBB 30 38 68
Central Oklahoma UCO 42 33 75

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Jordan Dunks Spark UCO

EDMOND (Feb. 25) – Trai Jordan had a pair of fierce first-half dunks off steals and length-of-the-court drives to spur Central Oklahoma past Nebraska-Kearney 75-68 Thursday night at Hamilton Field House.
 
The Bronchos never trailed after taking a 7-6 lead on a Seth Heckart 3-pointer early in the game and led by as many as 16 in the key Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association victory.
 
UCO improved to 14-13 on the season and 10-11 in the league to stay in the running for a first-round home game in next week's MIAA Tournament.  The Lopers, second in the conference standings entering the night, fell to 17-10 and 13-8.
 
"We shot the ball extremely well and did a good job defensively to beat a good team," head coach Tom Hankins said.  "Trai gave us a big lift with some of the hustle plays he made and I thought we played really hard tonight."
 
The Bronchos had their second-best shooting game of the season in hitting 29-of-49 field goals (59.2 percent), making 10-of-20 tries (50.0 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc.
 
Jordan finished with three dunks and led UCO's balanced attack with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting while adding a game-high eight rebounds, four blocked shots and two steals.
 
Heckart drained four treys in a 12-point, seven-rebound, three-assist outing, with Cornell Neal adding 12 points and seven assists and Josh Holliday 10 points.
 
The Bronchos also did a fantastic defensive job on UNK scoring ace Connor Beranek, with Jordan London doing most of the work in limiting Beranek to 12 points – 12 below his average – on 4-of-11 shooting.
 
Jordan gave UCO its first basket when he took the ball away from a Loper defender and sprinted the other way for a one-handed jam and the Bronchos went ahead to stay at 7-6 on Heckart's fadeaway trey from the corner at the 16:00 mark.
 
Another Heckart 3-pointer pushed the lead to double digits at 24-13 midway through the opening half and Jordan made it a 13-point advantage (28-15) at 8:06 after following his second steal with a tomahawk dunk.
 
Strassle's tip-in bucket at the buzzer gave UCO a 42-30 halftime cushion and Jordan opened the second half with a layup off a nifty Heckart pass to make it 44-30.
 
The lead peaked at 16 (56-40) on Holliday's 3-pointer from the wing with 12:06 left and it was still a 14-point lead at 63-49 after a Jarred Bairstow layup with 5:35 remaining.
 
UNK got back in the game briefly with an 8-0 run that cut the lead to six (63-57) at the 4:25 mark, but Bairstow hit another layup and Heckart drilled his final 3-poiner to quickly get make it 68-57 at 3:33 to end the suspense.
 
The Bronchos close out the regular season Saturday, hosting Fort Hays State at 3:30 p.m. on Senior Day.
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