McPHERSON, Kan. -- Needing a win to secure the second seed in next week's Sooner Athletic tournament quarterfinals, senior Josh Bowling hit 16-of-17 from the stripe and tied a career-high 35 points in the John Brown University men's basketball team's 80-73 win over Central Christian (Kan.) on Saturday (Feb. 23) afternoon inside the Ed Pyle Sports Complex.
The second-seeded Golden Eagles (21-9, 15-7 Sooner Athletic) will welcome seventh-seeded Southwestern A.G. (Texas) to Bill George Arena for a 7 p.m. tipoff with the winner advancing to the semifinals, scheduled for Friday (March 1) in Oklahoma City inside Abe Lemons Arena.
In fact, Tuesday's contest will be the first men's basketball quarterfinal the Golden Eagles have hosted since the Sooner Athletic went to a neutral final four site.
Sixteen leads changes peppered this afternoons tilt, but with 5:37 left to play, Bowling took over the contest and helped the Golden Eagles finish the contest on an 18-8 run to finish the regular season with its tenth win away from Bill George Arena.
Bowling first made a pair at the line, followed by consecutive field goals and even a triple. Sophomore Rokas Grabliauskas hit a trey to break up the Bowling run that finished with six-straight conversions at the charity stripe.
Central Christian (12-17, 6-16) finished 3-of-9 from the field down the stretch and committed a pair of turnovers, leading to the Tigers' seventh loss in eight games.
"Tonight required a very gritty effort to get the job done," head coach Jason Beschta admitted. "Central Christian is always tough on their home court, but we continued to make plays down the stretch and as good as our defense was tonight, our offense played through different lineups and bigger-than-normal minutes. Regardless, we found a way to get key stops at the end of the game.
"Josh relentlessly attacked the bucket and drew fouls while Rokas' triple late in the game gave us the breathing room we needed to finish strong defensively. Second place in such a tough league is really something to be proud of – and it's a couple of boxes checked from our list. All season we wanted to finish in the top four of the league and play a home game in the quarterfinals and now we have that opportunity."
Freshman Luke Harper creeped into double-digit scoring at 10 points before fouling out the contest. Grabliauskas and junior Brenton Toussaint each contributed a trio of field goals each, contributing nine and eight points, respectively.
The Tigers were led by Paul Ard II with 17 points and 4 rebounds, and Isaiah Rivera came off the bench for 17 points and 5 assists. Steve Kuminga and Andrew Epps each notched 10 points in the loss.
While held to just 5-of-18 behind the arc, John Brown finished the game at 48 percent from the field and converted 29-of-34 at the line.
Bowling's 16-of-17 mark at the line checked in at No. 5 on the single-game free throw scoring record. Gaylord Browne '72 holds the single-game record with a 19-of-24 mark versus Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) on Nov. 17, 1970.
