FORT WORTH, TX

Written by: Francisco Echandi
2/22/2022

On Tuesday evening, our Central Christian College Tigers booked their place into the Sooner Athletic Conference's Quarterfinals after beating the Texas Wesleyan Rams by a narrow 69-64 at the Sid Richardson Center for their bout in the First Round of the Conference Tournament.

It was a match that was filled to the brim with uncertainty. Both teams came in with an irregular record (the Tigers had a 12-17 record against the Rams 19-11), and their previous matchup was a 69-52 win for the Rams at the Jerry Alexander Arena, three days after the Tigers' trip to Texas, which had two very physically demanding games. Thus, the stakes for an intense matchup were very high. Not only was it a match which would put the winner into a Conference Tournament Quarterfinal, but it also had a highly motivated Tigers team that capped off a sensational Senior Night with a win against the Southwestern Christian University Eagles. All of that would have led up to a match that would surpass the previous matchup, and it really did. As the game started, that motivation from last game carried over to this bout, as the Tigers built up an 8-point lead in the first 3 minutes which was shortened at times but was maintained throughout the whole game, which ended up in a 5-point lead both at half-time and at full-time.

The top performers for the Tigers were Isaiah Rivera, who scored 22 points, 7 assists, and 3 steals in 32 minutes, as well as Demario Moore, who scored 75% of his field goals (with 5 out of 7 3-pointers scored), totaling 17 points in 22 minutes off the bench. On the defensive side of the game, two names stand out when it means to keep the Rams at bay. Darrell Bryant and Andre Shelby totaled 12 rebounds (half of the Tigers), 6 blocks out of 7 of the whole team, and 5 steals out of 13 from Coach Romero's team. On top of that, Darrell Bryant contributed 11 points in the offense, putting him as the 3^rd highest scorer from the Tigers.

Though this was a big step in the Conference Tournament Play-offs, the journey is far from over. The Tigers now have a very difficult stop, when they visit the Oklahoma City University Stars, whose last game was a thrilling 103-102 victory over the USAO Drovers, who ended up first in the power rankings (24-5 record) and are ranked as the 10^th best team in the NAIA. Nevertheless, Coach Romero's team will be looking to maintain this form and look to pull off a historic upset over one of the best teams in the Sooner Athletic Conference, which could very well happen. Do not write off this team yet.