Sam Belt was the best player in the Lone Star Conference in the
regular season. Central Oklahoma was the best team, winning their
respective division.
Nothing changed in the Lone Star Conference Tournament, as Belt
scored 25 points to lead UCO to a 72-70 win over Texas
A&M-Commerce in Saturday night's championship game held at
Bruin Field House.
The Bronchos outlasted the Lions down the stretch, hitting key
free throws and clutch baskets to win a game that had 11 ties and
15 lead changes.
Belt was named the LSC Tournament's Most Valuable Player,
scoring 33, 26 and 25 points in the three games. He grabbed 14
rebounds and dished out five assists to lead the Bronchos to their
fourth LSC Tournament title, but first since 1998.
John Neal added 16 points for UCO while Lance Harper scored
eight and earned a selection on the LSC all-tournament team.
The Lions had two representatives on the all-tournament team in
Scooby Johnson, who had a team-high 21 points and Kevin Widemond,
who scored 17.
UCO tied a school-record with its 25th victory,
improving to 25-5 and destined for one of the top seeds in next
week's South Central Regional Tournament.
The Bronchos were headed to the regional tournament regardless
of the outcome but A&M-Commerce had to win to keep its season
alive. The Lions fall to 14-16 but winning the conference
tournament would've been an automatic bid in the regional
tournament.
A&M-Commerce, the fourth-seed in the LSC North, began its
tournament run on Wednesday by upsetting West Texas A&M, the
No. 1 seed in the South before outlasting Abilene Christian Friday
night.
But the Lions' run came to an end against the Bronchos, who have
now won six straight games and 16 of the last 17 games.
None of the games in this current winning streak have been
closer than Saturday night.
Leading by just one at halftime, UCO and A&M-Commerce went
back and forth in the second half. The Bronchos grabbed a 55-49
lead with 9:58 to play.
Just when it looked as if Commerce would run out of gas, the
Lions came roaring back, led by Lance Jackson, who scored six
points in an 8-0 run that gave A&M-Commerce the lead with 6:33
remaining.
A three-point play by Johnson with 4:53 to go gave the Lions a
three-point lead but Belt quickly answered with his own 3-pointer.
The Lions answered with a 3-pointner by Leonard Bishop, but
after two free throws by Harper, Eric Cazenave gave the Bronchos
the lead with a 3-pointer from the right corner.
Neal added a layup and two free throws to push the lead to five
with 24 seconds left, but turned the ball over after a Johnson
layup, giving A&M-Commerce another possession, trailing by
three with 11 seconds on the clock.
But the inbounds pass was thrown away, the 19th
turnover of the game for A&M-Commerce.
David Thomas hit a free throw for UCO and Widemond's layup with
two seconds wasn't enough, preserving the win for the Bronchos, who
edged A&M-Commerce by just one point, 84-83 back on Jan. 16.
In the first half, A&M-Commerce came out hot, hitting their
first four shots and eventually built a 17-10 lead with 13:32 left
in the half on Scooby Johnson's jumper from the free-throw line.
UCO quickly answered with a 3-pointer by Belt, a jumper by Lance
Harper and then a dunk and a free throw by Cazenave to cap an 8-0
run, giving the Bronchos the lead.
Both teams traded baskets and the lead for the remainder of the
second half. UCO guard John Neal hit two 3-pointers to push the
Bronchos up by five at one point. Johnson and Widemond each hit
baskets to keep the Lions close, trialing at the half by only one.
By winning the tournament MVP, it was just another honor for
Belt, who was named the LSC North Player of the Year and a
first-team All-LSC selection. He moved into second place in UCO
scoring history with 1,862 points.
2008 LSC All-Tournament Team:
Sam Belt, Central Oklahoma (MVP)
Lance Harper, Central Oklahoma
Kevin Widemond, Texas A&M-Commerce
Scooby Johnson, Texas A&M-Commerce
Avery Patterson, Tarleton State
Cameron Holson, Abilene Christian
UCO QUOTES
Opening statement from head coach Terry Evans
A win is a win, but this was a great win and I'm proud of our
young men. Things weren't going our way - our goal was to stop
[Texas A&M-Commerce's] Scooby Johnson and Kevin Widemond, but
we still held them to 70 points. We could have scored a lot more,
we had more assists than turnovers, but we still missed a lot of
wide open shots. We pulled out the game though and we've shown that
we can play well. We didn't play as well as we would have liked but
we still came away with the win. You have to give Texas
A&M-Commerce a lot of credit because they beat the No. 1 seed
in West Texas A&M then played an exciting game against Abilene
Christian and they came out with a lot of fire against us and they
shot lights out.
When asked about defensive strategy (UCO scored 27 points off of
19 Commerce turnovers):
We wanted to get after them and tire them out but we were the
ones that looked like we didn't have any legs and we didn't make
our shots. If we can hold a team like that to 30-35 points a half
and still be in a position to win after they shot 50% and we shot
30%, then we have to give credit to our rebounding and defense.
That's what helped us overcome our bad shooting.
Tournament MVP Sam Belt
When asked how it feels to win the conference tournament as a
senior:
Going out on top like that is probably the best thing I could
end [my senior season] on. Hopefully we go to Regionals - that
would be even better, but this is great.
When asked about his play in the tournament:
I just felt really confident during the entire tournament and it
kept going to the next game and the next game. I'm pleased with how
we played and I'm glad we won as a team. I've got a lot of family
here and winning in front of them makes it a lot sweeter.
John Neal
When asked how it feels to have both UCO's men's and women's
teams in the tournament:
We're all pretty close and it's neat to have us both in the
finals. Hopefully they'll win - I don't know if that happens often,
but it's pretty neat for us both to be here.
When asked how important it was for him o play well in order for
the team to win:
My first game here was probably one of my worst games all season
and this one was probably one of my better games. Sam attracts a
lot of attention down low so I was able to knock down some open
shots. It's a good feeling.
Coach Sam Walker - General comments...
I thought we had a great season. We beat a lot of the
top teams in the region and I thought that we may have had the
toughest schedule in the conference. We played
all division II teams and we won the tough ones."
Walker on coming into tonight's
game...
"We believed that we were going to win. I was proud of the
way we fought the entire game. We just came up a bit short in
the end, but I give all of the credit to UCO."
Scooby Johnson on the year he had...
"I had a good year. We had a good year. We
fought hard, but we just fell short."
Johnson on next year's team...
"I feel like this team is going be really strong
next season. I think that they will be back in
the conference championship game next year."
Central
OklahomaNotes
- Central Oklahoma claims its fourth LSC Tournament and first
since 1998. The win over Texas A&M-Commerce improves
UCO's record in tournament finals to 4-3.
- LSC North Division Player of the Year Sam Belt drained a three
point short from the top of the circle for the Bronchos first
points of the night to tie the score at 3-3. The three
pointer extended UCO's streak of having made a trey in 604 straight
games.
- The Bronchos took a 38-37 lead into halftime. On the
year, UCO had not lost when leading at the break. After
tonight's win, Central Oklahoma improves to 18-0 when leading at
half.
- Belt made two free throws at the 12:24 mark of the second half
to take over second place on UCO's career-scoring list. Belt
has 1,837 points for his career, two more that former Broncho Larry
Wood.
- UCO was held to its third-lowest shooting percentage of the
season (.348). The previous low occurred in December against
Washburn when they connected on only 22 of 64 attempts (.344), a
game lost by the Bronchos, 71-68 in overtime. With the win,
the Bronchos improve to 17-5 when shooting under 50 percent from
the field.
Texas A&M-Commerce notes vs. UCO (men's title game)
Eighth LSC title game appearance for the Lions, but just the
second since
1997. A&M-C also advanced to the title game in 2005.
The Lions fell to 24-26 all-time in LSC Tournament play.
A&M-C lost all three meetings to UCO this season, also falling
84-83 in
Commerce and 76-60 in Edmond.
Shot 50 percent or better as a team for the ninth time this
season,
shooting 51.2 percent (21-for-41) against UCO.
Recorded the third-most free throws made on the season, connecting
on
23-of-33 trips (69.7%) to charity stripe. Their 33 free throw
attempts
were the fourth-highest this season by the Lions.
For the 24th time this season, Scooby Johnson and Kevin Widemond
scored in
double figures in the same game. Johnson ended the night with 21
points
while Widemond had 17.
This is the 29th game that Johnson has scored in double figures.
The only
game this season that he has not scored 10 or more points came in
the
regular season against UCO (Feb. 5), limited to just eight points
in that
game. This was the 16th time season that Johnson has scored 20
points or
more. He scored 19 points in each of A&M-C's previous
playoff games this
week.
Widemond has hit multiple three-pointers now in 10 of his last 11
games.
For just the seventh time this season, but third time this
tournament, the
Lions trailed at the half. A&M-C is now 4-3 in games it has
trailed at the
break this season.
A&M-C won the tip for the sixth straight game.
For the 11th time this season, the Lions have shot 50 percent or
better in
the first half, hitting 13-of-24 shots (54.2%) against UCO
before
intermission. A&M-C went just 6-of-15 from the floor in the
second half.
Lance Jackson recorded an offensive rebound for the seventh
consecutive game.
Widemond and Johnson were named to the All-Tournament Team.