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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Carson Calavan
Carson Calavan
84
Winner Northwest Mo. St. NMSU 20-1,10-1 Mid-America Intercollegiate
79
Central Okla. CentOK 7-15,4-9 Mid-America Intercollegiate
Winner
Northwest Mo. St. NMSU
20-1,10-1 Mid-America Intercollegiate
84
Final
79
Central Okla. CentOK
7-15,4-9 Mid-America Intercollegiate
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Northwest Mo. St. NMSU 34 50 84
Central Okla. CentOK 36 43 79

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

UCO Upset Try Falls Short Against No. 1 Bearcats

EDMOND (Feb. 1) – Central Oklahoma did just about everything right against defending national champion and top-ranked Northwest Missouri Saturday afternoon at Hamilton Field House.

The Bronchos shot the ball efficiently and well (59.1 percent, including 64.7 percent from 3-point range), limited their turnovers (13) and held their own on the boards (outrebounded 26-22).

And still it wasn't enough.

Central dropped a hard-fought 84-79 battle to the Bearcats in a back-and-forth contest that featured nine lead changes and nine ties. The Bronchos led for 24 minutes of the game, but came up short in the end.

"Our guys gave great effort," head coach Bob Hoffman said. "We need to figure out why we played the way we did today and play that way for the six games we have remaining. We're a work in progress and our guys are tremendous at working, but we just need to be more consistent."

The Bronchos fell to 7-15 on the season and 4-9 in Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association play with the tough loss. NWMSU improved to 20-1 and 10-1.

Carson Calavan paced UCO with a career-high 18 points. The redshirt freshman was 6-of-8 from the field and made all five 3-point tries, each of them coming in the first half.

Cam Givens was 5-of-8 from the field in a 14-point outing, while Dashon Bell added 12 points and four assists. Dashawn McDowell, D.J. Basey and Colt Savage chipped eight points apiece.

The Bronchos led most of the first half behind Calavan's remarkable outside marksmanship and took a 36-34 advantage into intermission.

NWMSU opened the second half with six unanswered points to move in front 40-36 and appeared to have UCO on its heels, but the Bronchos didn't back down.

Savage splashed a pair of 3-pointers, Bell made two free throws and Basey dropped in a layup during a 10-1 run that gave the Bronchos a 46-41 lead and it was still a five-point game at 48-43 following a Bell layup.

Two McDowell foul shots still had UCO ahead 55-53 before the Bearcats went in front for good with an 11-3 run to grab a 64-58 advantage. The deficit grew to nine (78-69) with just 1:51 remaining, but again the Bronchos didn't give in.

Cam Givens started an 11-2 spurt with two free throws and then ended it with a long 3-pointer that pulled Central within one at 80-79 with 19 seconds left. NWMSU made two free throws at 0:13 to go up 82-79, Cooper Clark's tying 3-point try from the corner was just off the mark with one second left and the Bearcats added two more foul shots after that to arrange the final margin.




 
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