East Central Oklahoma University Men’s Basketball Honors Five Seniors on Senior Night

Leonard Dixon/Men's Basketball | East Central Oklahoma University

By Press release submission

Feb 26, 2023

The East Central University men's basketball team gave it's five seniors its fifth straight win for their last game in the Kerr Activities Center with an 87-76 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State University Thursday night.

The Tigers improve to 17-10 overall and 12-9 in conference play.

"It wasn't the prettiest game in the world, but you got to take a win in February any time you can get it," Head Coach Daniel Wheeler said. "I thought our defensive effort was right, and I'm happy we could finish it out the way we did."

Both teams came out firing in the opening half, as it was a back-and-forth battle trading three-pointers. The Tigers opened the game with seven three-pointers to score 30 of 43 first-half points from beyond the arc, with the majority coming from Leonard Dixon and Jakeem Acres. The score would tie five times and have a couple of lead changes before the Tigers held onto a four-point lead heading into halftime, 43-39.

SWOSU battled out of halftime to erase the deficit and regain the lead 51-50 at the 15:32 mark. The Bulldogs would lead as much as four points until the Tigers responded with back-to-back three-pointers from Keyon Thomas took back the lead that never looked back. Over the next 11 minutes, ECU would go on a 28-18 scoring run that proved to be too much for SWOSU, and the Tigers went on to win 87-76 on senior night.

Before the start of the game, the Tigers honored five seniors – Leonard Dixon, Barron Tanner, Jr., Luke Harper, Romello Wilbert, and Jakeem Acres.

Four Tigers led the offense, Leonard Dixon, Keyon Thomas, Jakeem Acres, and Quinton Johnson II.

Dixon led with 17 points, making five of his six field goals from beyond the arc.

Thomas had 15 points shooting 5-for-10 from the floor with three of those coming from the three-point line.

Acres was close behind with 14 points in his last game at the Kerr, going 4-for-9 overall and 3-for-6 from three-point range.

Johnson finished with 12 points shooting 5-for-11 from the floor while adding five rebounds.