Dec. 21—Coming off a thrilling comeback victory over Oklahoma Baptist, the East Central University men’s basketball continued their win streak with a 78-55 non-conference win over John Brown University on Monday afternoon in the Kerr Activities Center.
The Tigers improved to 7-3 on the season, while John Brown now stands at 6-4.
The ECU men’s team is now off until facing Arkansas Tech University on Jan. 4 in Russellville, Arkansas.
“It was a good win for us today, especially going into the break,” said ECU men’s head coach Daniel Wheeler. “This group continues to grow and get better. I really liked the way we shared it today. John Brown is hard to guard and we were able to string some stops together.”
John Brown opened up the scoring, holding the early lead for four and a half minutes until Godsgift Ezedinma’s layup tied the score 6-all and Keyon Thomas’ layup gave ECU the lead for good.
The Tigers extended their advantage to as much as 19 points in the first half, but with a few made jumpers by the Golden Eagles down the stretch, ECU held a 37-23 lead heading into halftime.
Out of the break, John Brown caught ECU on their toes as they went on a 13-4 scoring run to cut the deficit down to five points at 41-36. However, the Tigers quickly responded, and with a 3-pointer from Bryce Woolridge at the 12:24 mark, ECU’s lead grew to 52-40 and the hosts never looked back as they led by double-digits the rest of the way. The Tigers’ biggest lead came at the 1:55 mark when a 3-point basket by Robel Desta made it 78-50.
ECU outrebounded John Brown 34-27 and shot 53.8%, including 10-of-27 from beyond the arc.
The Tigers had a balanced effort, with nine players in the scoring column while four reached double-digit figures.
Keyon Thomas led the way with 20 points. It was his third straight 20-plus point performance. He shot 7-of-11 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
Bryce Woolridge contributed 15 points on 6-of-7 (85.7%) shooting, three baskets of which came from beyond the arc, while Godsgift Ezedinma put up 13 points and had five rebounds.
Robel Desta collected 11 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds for the home team.
John Brown got 15 points from Ahlante Askew, including three 3-pointers. Drew Miller followed with 12 points for the Golden Eagles.
Note: Ada News Sports Editor Jeff Cali contributed to this report.
