KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Langston (Okla.) Lions made their shots when it mattered most and rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to knock off Oklahoma Wesleyan, 56-55, in a Round of 16 game at the 88th annual NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship at Municipal Auditorium Friday night.
The Lions - making their fourth straight appearance in the Round of 16 - trailed 40-26 with 13:54 to go in the game before they started to make a run to get back into the game. They slowly chipped away at Oklahoma Wesleyan's lead before finally taking the lead, 48-47, on a layup by Orlando Thomas with 2:57 left. Langston, which beat Oklahoma Wesleyan, 73-70, back on Nov. 1 at a neutral site, extended its lead to 52-48 on a pair of Omar Henry free throws with 1:54 still to go, but the Eagles (30-4) scored the next four points to tie it up, 52-52 with 1:21 left.
After Langston edged ahead, 54-52, after two more free throws by Thomas, Angel Hidalgos drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner to put Oklahoma Wesleyan ahead, 55-54, with 34 seconds remaining, but Thomas got the game-winning basket with 17.4 seconds left to lift Langston to the win. Oklahoma Wesleyan did have two potential game-winning shots, but both were off the mark, and Langston moved on to the quarterfinals.
"I'm glad we won, we were very fortunate, we made a lot of mistakes tonight and I wasn't very good," fourth-year head coach Chris Wright said. "I'm happy we were able to make one more play than them. The fact that we missed a switch at the end of the game and the ball didn't go in, we must be living right. It's better to be lucky than good sometimes but we're happy we're on to the Elite Eight."
Neither team was able to do much offensively in the first half, as Langston missed its first 15 shots from the field and went the first 12:44 of the game without a field goal before Omar Henry made a basket to trim Oklahoma Wesleyan's lead to 14-5 with 7:16 to go before halftime. The Lions were just 4-for-22 overall (18.2 percent) and 1-of-8 from 3-point range (12.5 percent) with nine turnovers. However, Oklahoma Wesleyan wasn't much better, going 7-for-21 from the field (33.3 percent) and 2-of-7 (28.6 percent) on 3-point shots with 10 turnovers. What enabled Oklahoma Wesleyan to take a 26-18 lead into the break was going 10-for-13 (76.9 percent) at the free-throw line while the Lions were still struggling to get their first field goal.
Temaje Izuagbe led Oklahoma Wesleyan with eight points, and Ethan Williams pitched in seven for the Eagles, who finished as the runner-up in last year's NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship. Thomas scored six points to help keep the Lions close despite their initial shooting struggles.
The second half started much like the first, with Oklahoma Wesleyan making enough shots to extend its lead while Langston continued to struggle finding consistent offensive success. However, the Lions were able to turn things around late and advance over the Eagles, who had a 10-game winning streak snapped with the loss.
Thomas finished with 20 points, nine rebounds, and two steals to lead Langston. Henry added 11 points and four rebounds for the Lions, who finished the game 15-for-49 (30.6 percent) from the field, including 6-for-21 (28.6 percent) on 3-pointers.
Williams was the leading scorer for Oklahoma Wesleyan with 13 points, four rebounds, and two assists. Izuagbe finished with 12 points, and Hamblin chipped in 10 points, five rebounds, and two blocked shots for the Eagles in the loss.
Langston (27-7) advances to the NAIA Men's Basketball National Tournament quarterfinal round for the third time in program history and will play on Saturday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. inside Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. They will face the No. 2 seed Rocky Mountain (Mont.) Battlin' Bears (31-3) out of the Frontier Conference.
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