Oklahoma City (March 3, 2011) — The fourth seeded JBU men’s basketball team suffered the first upset of the 2011 Twid’s Sooner Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament after falling 68-73 to fifth seeded Northwestern Okla. State in the wee hours of Friday morning .

In a game that was originally scheduled to begin at 9:45, the teams didn’t take the floor until 11:00 p.m. due to a triple overtime game between No. 3 Rogers State (Okla.) and No. 6 Lubbock Christian (Texas) earlier that evening.  RSU eventually won 104-103.

For JBU (22-9), Sam Bartlett led the team with 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Andrius Mikutis chipped in with 11, and Coleson Rakestraw added 10.

For NWOSU (21-10), Jonathan Freemyer finished with a game high 24 points and seven rebounds, followed by Orren Tims with 22.  And Marshall Bell rounded out their double digit effort with 12.

Both teams got off to a slow start, but NWOSU managed to jump ahead by six, 16-10, after a three from Bell with 11:08 left in the first half. 

JBU climbed within three, 18-21, after a three from Mikutis at the 3:40 mark.  But the Rangers closed out the half on a 6-0 run to take a 27-18 lead into the locker rooms.

For the half, both teams struggled from the field with JBU only shooting 33.3 percent (7-21) compared to 31.3 percent (10-32) from NWOSU.  JBU also struggled from the foul line with a 1-of-8 performance for 12.5 percent compared to 5-of-7 from the Rangers for 71.4 percent.

In the second half, the Rangers blasted out of the gates and sprinted to a 44-25 lead with 13:45 left.  But the Golden Eagles wouldn’t be finished and slowly chipped away at the deficit making it a single digit game, 52-60, after a trey from Rakestraw with 4:58 to go.

After a series of traded buckets, the Rangers pushed it back to a 10 point game after a layup from Bell made it 66-56 with 2:10 remaining. But JBU responded and pulled within four, 63-67, after Andy Garcia sparked a 7-1 run capped off by a bucket from Ryland Allen with 1:08 to play. 

With time against them, JBU was forced to foul the rest of the way, but the Rangers went a perfect 6-of-6 down the stretch to hold on for the upset.

Overall, JBU shot 41.1 percent (23-56) for the game, while NWOSU hit 42.9 percent (24-56).  JBU loss the battle of the boards 41-37 and committed 17 turnovers while forcing only 11.  A major blow to the Golden Eagles came at the foul line where they went 14-of-25 for 56 percent.

The Rangers now advance to the semifinals to face Oklahoma Baptist.

JBU, meanwhile, must now wait to see if they’ll receive an at-large bid to this year’s national tournament.  The tournament qualifiers and bracket are scheduled to be released on Wednesday afternoon, March 9.

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