WAXAHACHIE, Texas -- A Lion run midway through the second half was too much to overcome and the John Brown University men's basketball team suffered a 99-87 setback, clipping its two-game win streak, to No. 9 Southwestern A.G. (Texas) on Friday (Feb. 12) evening inside the Sheaffer Center.
Senior Densier Carnes posted a monster performance of 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists, while sophomore DJ Ellis also converted 7-of-9 from the floor to score a career-high 19 points, but the ninth-ranked Lions (9-1, 8-1 Sooner Athletic) used a 36-24 rebounding advantage to create distance in what was an evenly matched performance throughout most of the evening.
Down 53-49 early in the second half, senior Rokas Grabliauskas and junior Luke Harper hit triples and sophomore Nemanja Obradovic converted an old-fashioned three-point play to spur the Golden Eagles (5-5, 5-5) on a 9-0 rally to take a 55-53 lead. Then, the Lions took over next seven minutes of the contest, and for good.
During the next 6:42, SAGU hit 8-of-12 from the field, including four triples, while the visitors struggled at a 4-of-12 clip and a trio of turnovers, allowing the Lions to post a 26-9 run to take a 79-64 lead, which was stretch to a game-high 16 points when the hosts managed a 85-69 lead.
John Brown returned volley with a 16-4 run of its own, fueled by eight Ellis points, but late fouls and a 15-of-16 Lions clip from the stripe in the second half ended the Golden Eagles' chance of knocking off a top-10 opponent.
"Tonight was one of our best offensive outputs of the season," said head coach Jason Beschta. "If you were to look at the box score, you would think we played a pretty good game minus a few too many turnovers. SAGU scored at such a high clip tonight and were able to play the style of game where they thrive. We forced some difficult shots in the first half that they simply hit, but I thought in the second half they were able to get more open locks than contested ones and they are way too good to give those kinds of looks to.
"I love the way we responded when we found ourselves down in each half. We came back with some key defensive stops and then big shots on the offensive end. While we can't give up this many points and expect to win games, we are showing that we can play faster and score more points than we could a few weeks ago now that we have everyone back."
Haper (18) and Grabliauskas (10) finished in double-digit scoring for John Brown and the Golden Eagles shot over 50 percent from the field (32-of-63) and from behind the arc (15-of-29).
SAGU featured five in double figures, paced by Nathan Bailey's 23 point effort that accompanied seven rebounds. Joshua Kashila and Isaiah Boling each contributed 15 points while Noah Boling added 12 and Joel Polius, 10. Polius nabbed 11 board to finish off the double-double as the Lions won its seventh straight.
The Golden Eagles will now finish its two-game road trip with a matinee performance inside the Sid Richardson Center against Texas Wesleyan. The contest is scheduled to tip at 3:45 p.m.
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