The Drovers entered Thursday’s game as the #4 seed in the SAC tournament, riding a three-game win streak. USAO’s opponent tonight was the #5 seed Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU). USAO last played SAGU on January 26th, where the Lions edged out a five-point victory against the Drovers. The teams matched up twice for the season with both teams winning on their home court, making this a very decisive match-up.

The first half saw a lot of back-and-forth action, SAC player of the week Samkelo Cele started the game off by scoring the Drover’s first ten points of the game, but the Lions stayed close. The entirety of the first quarter saw each team exchanging leads, the Drovers found themselves trailing for most of the half. The biggest lead USAO held was seven points around the nine-minute mark of the first half, aside from that, it was closely contested. The Drovers ended the half down by eight, with Cele leading the charge with 18 points in the first half, and Gerard Makuntae pitching in nine points. The halftime score was 54-46, in favor of SAGU.

The second half felt the same intensity, in what was a very high scoring game. Each team shot exceptionally from three-point range, evidently with both teams hitting above the 40% clip.

This game was all offense, USAO put up an offensive output that would win them most games, but SAGU put up just as good of a performance. Looking at the score columns causes for a pause as both teams shot 16-38 (.421) from behind the arc. The slight differences in scoring came from SAGU’s two additional field goals, the Lions sat at 36-72 (.500) field goals made compared to USAO’s 34-68 (.500). Finally, the big difference came from the charity stripe, where SAGU made 12-16 (.750) in comparison to USAO’s 8-12 (.667).

Cele led scoring with 28 points paired with six rebounds. While Makuntae ended with 17 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists. Logan Dolan contributed 16 points and three assists.

The Drovers will receive a final decision on their season at the selection show Thursday, March 2nd.

Preston Palm is a second-year Communication major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.