Article Date
December 2, 2005
Oklahoma Baptist got 49 of its 81 points from its post players as the Bison moved to 9-0 with an 81-41 drumming of Hillsdale Freewill Baptist College Friday night at the Noble Complex.
Frank Benson led all Bison scorers with 19 points followed by Julius Hurd with 18 and Justin Benson with 12. Hurd got a double-double with 11 rebounds as well.
"The way (Hillsdale) played defense tonight, packing it down in the paint, I think our postmen did a nice job," said head coach Doug Tolin. "I thought they got better as the game went on with kicking the ball out and finding open people. We got better as a team and got better balance throughout the game."
The Saints' Jimmy Gibbs scored a game high 24 points.
OBU dominated Hillsdale in every possible category. The Bison out rebounded the Saints 39-24, dished out 14 more assists and turned the ball over 10 times compared to Hillsdale's 26.
The Bison also forced the Saints into two shot-clock violations with their high pressure defense.
"I thought our defense got much better as the game went on," said Tolin. "I thought at the start of the game we were pretty passive."
Tolin pointed towards rebounding as being one of the keys to the Bison's success on the floor.
"You don't give them any baskets and you get easy baskets when you out rebound a team like that," said Tolin. "We should out rebound them. We were bigger and more athletic. That's something we haven't been too great at, but we've gotten better the last two or three games."
After a slow start, OBU trailed early in the first half by two at 6-4, but regained the lead at 8-6 and never trailed again.
"I don't know if we rolled the first 10 minute of the game, but we definitely picked it up tonight," said Tolin. "In the second half I thought we played much better defensively. I thought we ended up playing a pretty good basketball game before it was all over."
With the game tied at 12, the Bison went on a 16-0 run to take a 28-12 lead with 4:09 left to play in the half. OBU then finished out the half with a 7-0 to hold a 38-17 lead at intermission.
The Bison pulled away in the second half even more in the second half to pull off the 40-point win.
OBU plays Manhattan Christian College today at 4 p.m. in the Noble Complex.