NW Oklahoma News

The Aggies men's basketball team tipped off their 2023 season at home as they faced Oklahoma City University. 

This would be the tenth matchup between the Aggies and the Stars.
Both teams would be trading shots in the first half of the game. The Aggies saw themselves down by 6+ points eight times. The Stars would go on a 13-0 run at the 3:45 mark, and going into halftime; the Aggies would tail 48-62.

Coming out of halftime, the Aggies would see the lead grow to 16 points before things changed. The Aggies would go on a 12-2 run, cutting into the Stars' lead. At the 10:40 mark, the stars would go up by 10. The Aggies would battle back. Senior Rayquan Elliott would hit a jump shot at the 7:15 mark to get the Aggies within 4. Both teams would play this down to the wire. With 52 seconds left, the Stars would hit a three-point shot to go up by two, and on the next Aggie possession, Junior Justin Pile would hit it home with a dunk, tying the game at 97-97. After the timeout, Freshman Fedja Cukle would steal the ball and get fouled to go to the free throw line to shoot two. Cukle missed his first attempt but would seal the game on his second attempt, scoring 98-97.

After the game, coach Laird shared," We had a terrible night defensive first half. Gave up 62 points. But I challenged my guys to do what I know they're capable of, and we won the 2nd half 50-35. It felt good to get our first SAC win! It felt great to finally add a few guys to help us turn this thing around! Now we turn our attention to getting ready for John Brown University on Saturday." 

Aggies' next basketball Game will be on January 7th as they face John Brown University at home tip-off will be at 3:45 PM. 

Original source can be found here