PT. LOOKOUT, Mo. -- The host Bobcats (6-3) shot lights out wire-to-wire, and the John Brown University men's basketball team suffered through a 104-85 blitzing by College of the Ozarks (Mo.) on Tuesday (Nov. 26) night inside Keeter Gymnasium.
Six Bobcats finished in double figures as the hosts shot 70 percent in the first half and 67 percent over the 40-minute contest (38-of-57), led by Brandt Cochran's game-high 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor.
A triple from senior Josh Bowling followed by a bucket down low from junior Quintin Bailey to kick off the contest 5-0 in favor of John Brown (5-2), but C of O responded with a 9-3 run to take the lead, and for good. The Bobcats could virtually not miss, hitting 21-of-30 from the field in the first half, including 6-of-9 from behind the arc.
"C of O can really shoot the three, and I think this year's team is the best I have seem them have at driving to the rim as well," head coach Jason Beschta applauded. "It makes them really tough to guard. We were soft in a lot of ways tonight. We didn't take pride in guarding the ball, we lost our man cutting without the ball several times leading to some easy layups, and our talking and communication just wasn't there tonight. We had some good flashes of how we typically play - Brent made big plays for us at both ends of the court, but as a whole we know we have to be accountable to ourselves and our teammates if we want to play to our potential.
"This is a big week as we prepare for a couple of conference games against some of the top teams in the Sooner Athletic. We will be ready to get back to being who we are."
Twelve points off the bench from Brenton Toussaint kept the Golden Eagles in contention down the stretch, but the Bobcat lead expanded to 24, twice, before the intermission.
Finally reaching a game-high 30 points, the Bobcat advantage dwindled, courtesy of 15 second-half points from sophomore Rokas Grabliauskas and another 10 from senior Jake Caudle. Whittled down to 13 with 7:13 left in the contest, College of the Ozarks responded with a 20-9 run to put the contest away for good.
Heath Carmichael and Ethan Davidson each contributed 19 points for the Bobcats, while Treydon Rackley added 17 and Klay Barton, 14. Storm Price came off the bench to add 10.
In a contest that didn't feature an abundance of rebounds, the hosts took a narrow advantage, 26-24, in the battle of the boards.
Grabliauskas finished the contest with a team-leading 17 points, hitting 4-of-6 from the floor and 7-of-8 from the line. Caudle and Toussaint each finished with 16 apiece, as Toussaint pulled down a team-best six rebounds in the losing effort.
The Golden Eagles actually finished over 50 percent from the floor (33-of-64), but managed to sink just 9-of-28 from long range.
JBU returns to action again on Thursday (Nov. 29) at Southwestern A.G. (Texas). The three-game road trip continues in Waxahachie with an 8 p.m. first tip.
