SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- The John Brown University men's basketball team continued its sizzling start to the 2019-20 campaign on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 23) by riding a hot shooting afternoon from the floor and from long range to get off to their best start in six years with a 95-91 win over Texas Wesleyan inside Bill George Arena.
The Golden Eagles (8-0, 2-0 Sooner Athletic) blistered the nets at nearly a 57 percent clip, but had to survive a late charge from the Rams (5-2, 0-1).
The game was a tale of two halves. The first half belonged to Texas Wesleyan as they inched their way out in front early. The Rams pushed their lead to seven points twice early before a triple from junior Kiree Hutchings closed the gap to 17-13 with 12:26 to play in the half. The Rams answered that score, however, with a 13-0 run to take a 30-13 lead with 8:57 to go in the half - a game-high 17-point advantage.
The hosts began to whittle away at the deficit in the final moments of the first half. The Golden Eagles got the margin below 10 points with 6:08 to go in on a basket from senior Quintin Bailey, and that came as a part of a 14-0 JBU run that saw Hutchings give the Golden Eagles the lead with 4:30 left before intermission. The Rams, though, answered and pushed their lead back to five points twice before settling for a 46-43 halftime lead.
The game remained tight through the early stages of the second frame, with three ties and five lead changes in the first 6:21 of the period. JBU took the lead on a Luke Harper triple with 13:39 to go, and that ignited a JBU run that helped the Eagles put some distance between themselves and the Rams. The Golden Eagles ran off a 16-3 rally that saw a shot from Harper at the 9:48 mark give JBU a 73-61 lead.
The JBU lead ballooned to 16 points twice, with the latter of those instances following a three-pointer from junior Rokas Grabliauskas with 6:05 to play. Texas Wesleyan whittled away at the margin in the final moments, using an 11-2 run to cut the JBU lead to 93-91 with six seconds to play, but a pair of free throws from junior Densier Carnes sealed the game.
Harper led all scorers with 27 points in the game, while Hutchings and Carnes each added 16. Bailey (11) and Grabliauskas (10) were also in double-figure scoring, and Carnes added 10 rebounds to notch his fifth double-double of the 2019-20 season. Harper and Grabliauskas each had five assists and Carnes had a pair of blocked shots.
JBU cashed in a 30-of-53 (57 percent) performance from the floor, and were 16-of-34 (47 percent) from long range. The Golden Eagles also shot it well from the charity stripe, cashing in 19-of-24 attempts.
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The Golden Eagles will return to the court one more time before Thanksgiving, hosting Champion Christian (2-2) at Bill George Arena on Tuesday evening (Nov. 26) at 7 p.m.
