INCARNATE WORD 88, OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE 55
Incarnate Word did what was needed Thursday night to get the Cardinals back to its top position in the Heartland Conference as UIW ran away from Oklahoma Panhandle in the 88-55 victory at the McDermott Center.
UIW came into the game riding in second position (8-3) in the Heartland chase, a game behind Newman. With Newman’s loss at Texas A&M International Thursday UIW is atop the league based on two wins over the Jets earlier. What is going on is six teams will get into the Heartland’s post-season championship tournament the first weekend of March. The top two seeded teams get first round byes while the other four beat up on each other.
With the victory UIW goes to 15-6 on the year. OPSU falls to 9-11 and 5-5 in the league. That break even mark in Heartland action is good right now for fifth place.
There were two significant points in Thursday’s game from the Cardinals perspective.
The first came early in the second half. Coming out of the halftime locker room with a nine-point, 38-29 advantage, the Cardinals got it to a 20-point margin with a 17-6 run in the first 5:39. It was 55-35.
Incarnate Word was ahead by 21, 64-43 with 11:24 to go in the game when both teams hit dry spells. It was two minutes and 39 seconds before another point was scored. UIW got the basket beginning a 16-2 spurt, the lead was 35 at 80-45 and the game was over.
All 11 Cardinals players saw action and all 11 scored points. Junior forward Chris Johnson led that crowd with his 16 points to go with a game high 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the year. He also had four steals to lead all players. Next up was junior guard Eric Stewart with 15 points. Senior guard Pierce Caldwell finished with 13 and junior forward Tracy Robinson had 12.
Topped by Johnson’s 13 the Cardinals dominated the backboards by a 51-39 count. Incarnate Word also topped the Aggies with 16 steals to seven.
Next up for UIW is a 4:30 p.m. home game Saturday against Texas / Permian Basin.