BASKETBALL: No. 9 OC pulls away from pesky Chaps

By Oscar LeRoy
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - The last time the Midland College men's basketball team faced Odessa College, it was embarrassed by the Wranglers.

Monday was a slightly different story.

While the Chaparrals faced an uphill battle facing a deep and talented No. 9-ranked Odessa College on Monday, they held their own for most of the game before the Wranglers pulled away for an 82-64 victory at Chaparral Center.

The game was opposite from the first meeting when the Wranglers ran over and around MC for a 98-60 victory in Odessa on Jan. 13.

In this game, MC (11-14, 4-10 in Western Junior College Athletic Conference) was down only 36-34 at the half and until the last few minutes was within striking distance of the league champion Wranglers (22-5, 13-0).

"I was proud of our effort and our intentions," MC coach Pat Rafferty said. "We had a few lapses in the last 10 minutes that kind of allowed them to separate. I thought we hung in there, I thought we played hard.

"(The Wranglers) are really good, they play really hard and they keep running guys at you. They're really good at wearing you down. My whole thing is, I don't think about who's not playing. I think about the guys that are playing, that we do have. And I thought the seven guys that went out there tonight just played really hard. I thought we ran out of gas a little bit and I thought because of that we had some lapses. We had some guys that played 38, 40 minutes. I thought we competed hard but the game was 8 to 10 minutes too long for us."

The Wranglers had 14 players get in the game, doubling what the Chaps had available.

"I think (the Chaps) played really well in the first half and they competed at a high level," OC coach Kris Baumann said. "I think the difference in the game is we have more athletic bodies at the end of the day. Pat's a terrific coach and they played really hard. They did some things to us that other teams haven't done quite yet defensively. Thank God we were able to pull away at the end."

MC got a big night from 6-foot-4 freshman forward Oliver Hayward, who had a game-high 24 points.

"Oliver is getting better and better and understanding what his strengths and weaknesses are," Rafferty said. "He's learning to play more toward his strengths, and I thought he had a great game. He's playing against guys that are bigger, stronger and more athletic."

Jaden Henderson added 18 points for MC.

Daniss Jenkins led three Wranglers in double figures with 19 points, Darrell Armstrong Jr. had 17 and Daniel Rivera added 12.

The Chaps will look to close out the season with a few more positives as they will miss out on the postseason for the 11th consecutive season. MC closes out the home schedule at 6 p.m. Thursday against New Mexico Military Institute before heading to South Plains College on Feb. 24.

"It would have been easy to lay another egg tonight, and I think that's the last thing we did," Rafferty said.