Men's Basketball beats WTC 55-54

ARTICLE & PHOTO BY MICHAEL BAUER | ODESSA AMERICAN

The Odessa College men's basketball team escaped with a 55-54 win against Western Texas College Monday at the OC Sports Center.

With the victory, the Wranglers have now won three consecutive games, improving to 14-5 overall, 3-2 in Western Junior College Athletic Conference play.

With under a minute to go, Odessa College sat at a one-point deficit.

A steal by Jordan Trahan led to a dunk and the Wranglers suddenly took a 55-54 lead with 11 seconds to go.

Western Texas College's Yuval Shopen threw up a last-second shot as the clock expired but it was no good and the Wranglers survived.

"I was happy that we won," Odessa College head coach Kris Baumann said. "It wasn't very pretty. With this team, we were playing really well going into this game. We played well in the first half. The second half, turnovers killed us. But we won the game and that's all that matters. We're on a three-game winning streak. We protected our home floor. Now, we get to go to Clarendon College on Thursday. I was happy for the guys. I thought Jordan Trahan made a tremendous play. I thought he got a great steal and a big play at the basket. I was happy for him. He was able to make that play. We got two big stops at the end which is huge in college basketball. But we need to get better. We have a lot of talented players and we need to figure out how to improve in this league."

Odessa College was led in scoring by JD Bradford's 12 points while Tyler Williams had eight and Samarion Brown had seven points.

The Wranglers will next face Clarendon College at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Clarendon.