[Men's Basketball] Men's Basketball Falcons fall at No. 9 Oklahoma Wesleyan
Bartlesville, Okla. – The No 9-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan University Eagles remained unbeaten with an 81-61 win over the Friends University Falcons tonight (Dec. 4) in Bartlesville, Okla.
The Falcons trailed from the outset, as the Eagles scored the first six points of the game and quickly built a double-figure lead of 20-10 on a three-pointer by Valentin Van Putten at the 12:44 mark of the opening half.
Another Eagle trey from Kazden Ammons extended the lead to 13 when a layup by Tim Barbieri (JR/Abilene,Kan. ), a three from Trey Reid (FR/Wichita, Kan. ) and a Davonte Pack (SR/Sumter, SC) layup helped the Falcons climb within single digits with 10:37 left in the first half.
Following a near two-minute scoring drought by both teams, Van Putten and Kaleb Stokes combined to score all 12 points of a 12-2 burst that pushed the OKWU cushion up to 37-19.
The Eagles carried a 47-31 lead into the break.
With the OKWU lead back up to 18 in the early stages of the second half, Pack scored five straight points to pull Friends back to within 51-38 at the 17:30 mark.
But an 8-2 run by the Eagles resulted in their biggest lead of the night to that point.
The Eagles then kept the Falcons at arm's length the rest of the game, leading by at least 17 and stretching the edge as high as 22 points.
Pack led the Falcons (3-9, 2-4 KCAC) with 14 points and seven assists along with seven rebounds. Barbieri finished with a career-high 10 points and five boards, with Semaj Edwards (FR/Lanham, Md. ) also reeling in five rebounds.
Van Putten paced the Eagles (13-0, 7-0 KCAC) with 20 points, followed by Stokes with 18 points and a game-high seven rebounds. Jaden Lietzke added 15 points and Brandon Bird scored 11, with Derrick Talton, Jr. recording a game-high seven assists for OKWU.
The Eagles also controlled the glass, holding a 43-26 advantage in rebounding overall, with a 19-8 edge on the offensive boards that resulted in outscoring the Falcons 56-38 in the paint.
The Falcons will next return home and host Ottawa University Wednesday night (Dec. 8) at 8 pm inside the Garvey Center.