SILOAM SPRINGS -- Junior Drew Miller caught fire from behind the arc and scored a career-high 26 points, and freshman Trae Oetting came off the bench to provide 10 of his 13 points in the second half as the duo led the John Brown University men's basketball squad to a 75-72 win over Central Christian (Kan.) on Thursday night (Jan. 25) inside Bill George Arena to sweep the season series with the Tigers.
Powered by three Miller triples, the Golden Eagles (11-7, 9-4 Sooner Athletic) came out of the gates firing, hitting 9-of-13 from the field to open a 24-11 lead eight minutes into the contest. Then, as part of six lead changes in the first half, the visiting Tigers (8-10, 5-7) responded before the intermission.
Turnovers and a CCCK 10-of-19 shooting effort allowed the visitors to close out the final 12 minutes on a 30-16 scoring run, retaking the lead, 41-10, at the break.
Although briefly tied shortly into the second half, Central Christian held the lead until Miller scored a pair of buckets from long range and sophomore Klei Nagode added three points of his own to orchestrate a 13-3 John Brown run over a 4:54 span to hand the lead back to John Brown, 59-56, for good.
After Miller's go-ahead trey, the Tigers would later whittle the margin to one on three separate occasions, but John Brown wouldn't relent over the final 8:07 of the contest. Oetting would hit a pair of triples in the final three minutes to help the hosts maintain its advantage and complete the season sweep.
CCCK had a chance to tie the game on the final possession, but Chris Witten's jumper was off-target, and although the Tigers had one last chance with a second left after the rebound went off John Brown and out of play, a desperation triple at the buzzer wasn't close.
The win improved the Golden Eagles to 7-2 inside Bill George Arena and moved JBU into fourth place with nine games remaining in the regular season. JBU is a half game behind Southwestern A.G. (Texas) and Mid-America Christian (Okla.).
The John Brown shooting won the contest for the hosts, as the Golden Eagles hit 46 percent from the field (29-of-63) and enjoyed its second-best three-point shooting effort of the season, in large part to Miller and Oetting. The Blue and Gold finished 13-of-27 (48 percent) from behind the arc, helping erase an 18-turnover game.
The visitors shot just 38 percent (26-of-68) from the field, scoring just 11-of-36 (31 percent) in the second half.
Miller and senior Tyren Collins each contributed eight rebounds as the Golden Eagles easily won the battle on the glass, 47-33.
JBU will now head out to begin a three-game road trip, kicking off with the conference leader, No. 2 Langston (Okla.) on Saturday afternoon inside the C.F. Gayles Fieldhouse at 4 p.m. John Brown will then take its longest road trip of the conference season to take on Oklahoma Panhandle State and Wayland Baptist (Texas) next week. All three matchups will be carried live on the SAC Sports Network.
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