College basketball: Wranglers put pieces together in conference opener

For the next six to eight weeks, the Odessa College men's basketball team will be without an injured forward, lacking size early in conference play.

But after Wednesday night, it should not lack confidence, because it is still undefeated after beating Clarendon College 106-83 in the teams' Western Junior College Athletic Conference openers Wednesday at the OC Sports Center.

Without forward Melvin Baker, who is out with a broken finger, the Wranglers (12-0) started Justin Najera and Brian DeLeon down low.

Still, OC managed to go ahead by 15 points with about 11 minutes left in the first half. The Wranglers would lead 54-47 at halftime, after several players picked up fouls and had to be rested.

"The absence of Baker stuck out the last 10 minutes of the first half," OC head coach Dennis Helms said. "We just weren't real stable the last 10 minutes of the first half."

Devon McLendon, who is becoming an electric reserve for the Wranglers, scored 15 points in about 11 minutes before halftime and led the way after intermission, finishing with a game-high 26. McLendon, Tommie Sykes, who tallied 20 points, and Josh Brown, who notched 18, helped OC produce its highest-scoring game of the season.

"The foul trouble in the first half - we jut got out of sync of what we were doing, and then we played much better as a team in the second half," Helms said. "Our defense was better and then that led to fast breaks and we got stuff with that."

"I thought Devon, even though he had turnovers, played especially well in the second half," Helms added. "I didn't like his total defense in the first half. I thought Devon was into his own thing in the first half and into our thing in the second half."

Though Najera managed just nine points and five rebounds on a high-scoring night for OC, Helms said the stability he provided inside when he was in the game made a difference.

"We got exposed in the first half a little bit by not having (Baker)," Najera said. "In the second half we came out and played really well. We're going to miss him because he's such a good player. But I think we played well and played hard and executed everything well."

Meanwhile, Helms said he was impressed with point guard D'Andre Williams' performance. Williams had 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor in addition to a team-high four assists. Also, Rashad Savage came off the bench to pull down a game-high 12 rebounds on a night in which OC outrebounded the Bulldogs (7-5) 49 to 41.

"It feels really, really good," Najera said of OC getting its first conference win. "(Clarendon) is a good team, too. We knew they were going to come out and play hard all game-long, but I think we did a good job of matching their intensity level, which made them have to match our intensity level.

"So I think we did a good job of getting our first (conference) victory." 

>> Men's WJCAC Standings                                                   

                                              Overall        Conference

                                               W        L         W         L

Odessa College................... 12        0          1         0

South Plains College............ 10        0          1         0

Midland College................... 11        1          1         0

New Mexico JC..................... 11        2          1         0

Frank Phillips College............. 9        3          0         0

Howard College.................... 10        2          0         1

Western Texas College.......... 8        3          0         1

Clarendon College................. 7        5          0         1

New Mexico Military............... 4        8          0         1

Wednesday, Dec. 3

Odessa College 106, Clarendon 83

Midland 74, Howard 66

South Plains 58, Western Texas 46

New Mexico JC 94, New Mexico Military 58

Saturday, Dec. 6

Odessa College at South Plains, 4 p.m.

Midland College at New Mexico JC, 8:30 p.m.

Frank Phillips at Howard College, 7:30 p.m.

Western Texas at NMMI, 7 p.m. 

>> Odessa College 106, Clarendon College 83 

CLARENDON COLLEGE (7-5, 0-1)

Maurice Abraham 3-11 7-8 13; Danny Agbelese 2-2 0-0 4; Elhadji Ndiaye 1-4 2-2 4; Javon Cravin 5-11 0-0 12; Sam Jones 2-3 0-0 6; Brandon Burks 1-6 0-0 2; Michael Knight 0-2 0-0 0; Will Benson 6-10 0-0 14; Moses Adenpoju 1-1 1-4 3; Tyris Dowell 4-10 2 -2 10; Nick Pride 2-5 0-2 4; D'Angelo Penman 0-2 0-0 0; Deron Forman 4-7 3-4 11. Totals 31-74 15-22 83.

ODESSA COLLEGE (12-0, 1-0)

Devon McLendon 9-14 4-5 26; Justin Najera 4-5 1-4 9; Desmond Woodberry 1-5 1-2 3; Tommie Sykes 5-11 9-13 20; Carlos Berroteran 2-5 0-0 4; Josh Brown 8-15 2-2 18; Brian DeLeon 2-2 0-0 4; Rashad Savage 3-4 3-8 9; Frank Barnes 0-2 0-2 0; D'Andre Williams 4-7 5-7 13. Totals 38-70 25-43 106.

Halftime - Odessa College 54, Clarendon College 47. 3-Point goals - CC 6-16 (Abraham 0-2, Cravin 2-5, Jones 2-3, Burks 0-2, Benson 2-3, Dowell 0-1); OC 5-9 (McLendon 4-7, Woodberry 0-1, Sykes 1-1). Total fouls - CC 29, OC 18. Fouled out - None. Rebounds - CC 41 (Adenpoju 7), OC 49 (Savage 12). Assists - CC 6 (Burks 2), OC 14 (Williams 4).