Men Beaten by UCO, 83-76

January 17, 2009

WEATHERFORD, Okla. - Southwestern Oklahoma State University staggered and battered  Central Oklahoma for better than 20 minutes before the nationally-ranked Bronchos regrouped and surged to a hard-fought 83-76 win Saturday in a men's basketball game in Weatherford.

The emotionally-charged game had considerable drama in a matchup that gave the winner an inside track to the Lone Star Conference North Division race. The game had 63 fouls, five technicals, and  five players fouled out.

Kenneth White had 24 points to lead SWOSU in scoring before being whistled to the bench with his fifth foul at the 8:51 mark.  White's disqualification hurt the Bulldogs who were in a tight fight with the Bronchos up to that point.

UCO took advantage of the absence of SWOSU's scoring star going on a 15-1 run over a four-minute span. The Bronchos were up 76-61 lead when Eric Cazenave scored on a layup with 4:18 to play.

Cazenave led UCO in scoring with 28 points. The Bronchos improved to 15-2 overall and 2-0 in the LSC North.

Up to that point SWOSU had put on quite a show giving the boisterous crowd plenty to cheer about. The Bulldogs took apart the Bronchos in the first 20 minutes and were 43-32 leaders at the break. White had 18 at intermission and SWOSU was making better than 52% of its shots.

SWOSU stayed hot early the second half as Jose Garcia began to drop in long-distance three pointers. Garcia, who finished with a season-high 21 points, gave the Bulldogs their biggest lead of the game. His three-pointer put SWOSU in front 48-34 with 18:18 to play in the game.

The 14-point cushion was gone minutes later thanks in part to a five-point play by the Bronchos courtesy of a technical foul. UCO went ahead 53-52 when Lance Harper scored a basket while being fouled. Harper made the free throw and Cazenave swished two free throws to give the Bronchos their first lead of the game with 12:14 remaining.

The lead changed hands three more times over the next few minutes and was tied for the last time at 59-59 with 9:17 to play.

SWOSU ended the game making 40% of its shots on 21-of-52 attempts. The Bulldogs managed to connect on only eight-of-27 attempts in the second half for a 30% rate. UCO shot 50% in the second half which was a considerable improvement from its 31% effort in the first half. The Bronchos ended the game making 41% on 24-of-58 attempts.

UCO outrebounded the Bulldogs by a 46-34 margin. Jordan Frosch and Abdullah Lawal each had eight boards to lead SWOSU in that category.

SWOSU, which fell to 10-7 with the loss and 1-1 in the LSC North play will next play Wednesday at home against Cameron. Tipoff is at 8 p.m.