College basketball: Second-half burst sparks Wranglers
Odessa College men’s basketball coach Dennis Helms felt that the Wranglers had two days of good practice over the weekend in preparation for Monday’s game against New Mexico Military Institute.
When Odessa College took the court for the first half though against the Broncos, Helms barely recognized his team.
Things came much more in focus in the second half.
Struggling to find any rhythm in the first half, the Wranglers dominated the second half en route to a 75-46 Western Junior College Athletic Conference victory at the OC Sports Center.
The victory improves Odessa College to 20-5 overall and 5-4 in conference action, while the Broncos fall to 8-15, 1-8.
“I told the guys in the locker room after the game that this was a good win,” Helms said. “I really thought we practiced well the last two days and then between the end of practice yesterday and today, I’m not sure what happened but a little air came out of the balloon.
“We did a better job in the second half and that’s why I told the guys it was a good win because we didn’t play our top game and still were able to win by 29 points.”
Josh Brown and Kevin Schaffartzik each had 15 points to lead the Wranglers, with Eriq Harris chipping in 13 and Melvin Baker 11 in the victory.
Evan Gilliand of New Mexico Military Institute led all scorers with 20 points, while Sedric Martin added 11 in the loss.
The teams opened the game trading baskets and through the first 15 minutes, the Wranglers could manage only a four-point cushion, 23-19, after Gilliand connected on one of his three three-point field goals on the night.
Baker then converted a jumper inside the paint and that started a 15-6 run by Odessa College to end the half, highlighted by back-to-back three-pointers by Schaffartzik in the final two minutes of the half.
Still, the Wranglers were not happy in the locker room.
“The coaches just told us to come out playing better defense and to run our plays,” Brown said. “We didn’t do a good job of that in the first half and that coaches said if we kept that up we were going to keep them in the game.
“So we just concentrated on executing our offense in the second half and we were able to pull away.”
Odessa College pulled away in a hurry, too.
In their first five trips down the court in the second half, the Wranglers got a three-pointer from Baker, a pair of baskets by Brown and a long-distance three-pointer from 23 feet out from Schaffartzik to complete a 10-2 run in the first three minutes to break the game open, running to a 48-27 lead.
From there, it was just a matter of taking care of the basketball and running the offense and the Wranglers were very efficient on both counts, converting 40 percent from the field, while turning the ball over just nine times on the night.
