STEPHENVILLE, Texas (March 15) ? Not even a case of pre-tournament food poisoning could stop Central Oklahoma's postseason run here Saturday afternoon.
The No. 21-ranked Bronchos, who had half the team and the entire coaching staff fall ill Thursday night after eating at a local restaurant, held off Fort Hays State 65-64 in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional for their fourth straight postseason win.
UCO, which won three games to capture the Lone Star Conference Tournament title last week, set a school record for wins in improving to 26-5 in its lowest-scoring game of the season. The Bronchos advance to Sunday's 5 p.m. semifinals against Northwest Missouri, which routed St. Edward's in its first-round contest.
“We've faced a lot of adversity this year, but this weekend is the ultimate adversity,” said UCO coach Terry Evans, whose team has won 17 of its last 18 games. “We had some guys still sick coming into this game and our guys showed that we may not be the best team in the region but we're definitely the toughest. It was a great win for us.”
Michael Sosanya came off the bench to score a team-high 15 points for the Bronchos, hitting 9-of-10 free throws ? including 7-of-8 in the second half ? and adding seven rebounds. Leading scorer Sam Belt was held to 14 points while adding seven boards and Lance Harper had 11 points and six rebounds.
Terry Tucker was another big contributor off the bench with nine points and Neal finished with seven points and five assists.
“Coach told me to post-up deep and that nothing could hold me back,” Sosanya said. “I put that in my mind and kept it there the entire game.”
The Bronchos never trailed in the second half and had a nine-point lead at 57-48 with 4:45 before surviving some tense moments down the stretch, with Neal and Eric Cazenave hitting clutch free throws in the final 10 seconds to secure the win.
FHSU pulled within 61-58 at the 1:05 mark after a Jake Sims 3-pointer and both teams missed shots on their next possessions before Neal nailed two free throws with 10 seconds remaining to make it 63-58.
The Tigers got a 3-pointer from Tyrone Evans at 0:07 to pull within two points and then quickly fouled Cazenave. He made both foul shots with five seconds to play to push UCO's lead to 65-61 and those became vital when Greg Schmidt hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to bring FHSU within one.
UCO made just one 3-pointer in the contest, finishing 1-of-10 (10.0 percent) from long range. The Bronchos came through at the line, hitting 28-of-36 (77.8 percent) of their free throws.
A Tyler Phillips free throw and Belt jumper gave UCO a quick 3-0 lead to start the game, but the Tigers came back with a 10-0 run to take a 10-3 lead and the Tigers led 17-9 with 12:48 left in the half.
The Bronchos came back with a 10-2 run, tying it on two Sosanya free throws at the 7:51 mark, and Belt gave UCO a 26-25 lead with 3:25 remaining on a short jumper en route to a 31-26 halftime advantage.
FHSU rallied to tie it at 40, but back-to-back layups by Sosanya and Tucker put the Bronchos in front to stay 44-40 and Sosanya's three-point play made it 57-48 with 4:45 left before the Tigers made it interesting down the stretch.
Box Score
