The Golden Eagles held the lead for less than a minute of their Thursday night game against the number five team in the nation.
It would be all they needed.
The 10th ranked John Brown men’s basketball team beat fifth-ranked host Oklahoma Baptist 75-70 in a game in which the Eagles trailed almost all night. Days after the Eagles shot up from 25th to 10th in the NAIA coaches’ poll, the NAIA featured the match as its Game of the Week.
From the tipoff until eight minutes left in the second half, the Bison held court. They have been doing that for a while, winning 33 straight home games going into Thursday. But with eight minutes left, the Bison started to unravel and the Eagles started to storm back.
OBU settled for outside shots and bad looks and the Eagles, led by senior guards EJ McWoods and Coleson Rakestraw and freshman guard Kofi Josephs, closed the gap. With 1:28 left, freshman D’Shon Taylor dunked to tie the game.
After an OBU turnover, Kofi Josephs gave the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game with only 59 seconds left, a lead they would not relinquish. JBU finished the game on a 23-10 run.
By beating the Bison on their home court, John Brown did something no team has done in the regular season for nearly two years. The Bison’s last home loss came on Feb. 17, 2011.
Now the Eagles find themselves 5-0, which is the team’s best start to conference play in over a decade. Also, if the Eagles can defend home court on Saturday against second place Mid-America Christian, they could find themselves in the top five in next week’s poll. That game will be at Bill George Arena at 5 p.m. on Saturday.