The Bearcats came out shooting red hot, as Chris Rossow connected on back-to-back three’s to give SBU an early 6-0 lead. A Logan Hovey three with 16:54 left in the half forced an OBU timeout with the Bearcats holding an 11-3 lead. The Bearcats held steady, and a 5-0 solo run from Marlon Alcindor extended SBU’s lead to 15 at 21-6 with 13:54 left in the half. OBU responded with a 13-3 run to cut the SBU lead to five with 4:00 left in the first half, put a pair of free throws from Hovey and a three from Woodfall again pushed the lead to double-digits at 32-22. The two teams would trade baskets, and use mini-run’s, over the next three minutes as SBU eventually went into the break leading 43-32.
After a free throw from OBU opened up the scoring in the second half, Hoveyconnected on a three to push the Bearcat lead to 13 at 46-33. The two teams exchanged three’s before OBU closed the gap with a 14-3 run to cut the Bearcat lead down to two at 52-50 with 14:46 remaining. The Bearcats used an 7-1 run, capped off by an old fashioned three-point play from Rossow, to push their lead to 59-51, but again Oklahoma Baptist responded, this time with a 10-0 run, as SBU faced a 61-59 deficit. The Bearcats re-took the lead with 9:29 left in the game off of a layup from Rossow and a free throw from Cartier Dean, but the two teams continued to trade leads down the stretch. After a Dean three tied the game at 72-72 with 6:04 remaining, OBU slowly started to pull away forcing the Bearcats to foul. Despite being down only 5 with 2:41 to go, OBU hit free throws down the stretch as the Bearcats eventually fell 88-73.
Logan Hovey led the way with 19 points, on 6 of 9 shooting,14 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in a strong game for SBU. Newcomer Chris Rossow had 18 points with a pair of assists, while Kai Woodfall had 10 points, including 3 three’s, off of the bench. As a team SBU shot 47.2% from the field, 54.5% from beyond the arc, and 61.1% from the free throw line.
The Bearcats will return to action on Saturday, November 11 when they host Southwestern Oklahoma State. Tip is set for 7:00 p.m. from the Meyer Sports Center in Bolivar.
