Complete Box Score

FORT WORTH, Texas - Aaron Whaley hit for 25 points as Texas Wesleyan downed Red River Conference rival Langston University 83-66 on Saturday night in the Sid Richardson Gymnasium. The Rams avenged a 87-68 loss on January 25th at Langston, and locked up a top-four conference finish - securing a home date for the first round of the RRAC tournament.

Kenny Johnson got the Rams on the board first with a put-back of his own miss 20 seconds in. The Lions, however, scored the next 11 points to open up a nine-point lead after three minutes of play. The Rams came back with a streak of their own though, scoring 14 of the next 16 points. Joey Gladney’s three-pointer at 11:55 capped the run, and gave the Rams a 16-13 lead. They wouldn’t trail again.

Over the next several minutes, the Rams would build the lead to ten. Whaley, who is averaging over 22 points in his last five games, hit consecutive three-pointers to give the Rams a 30-20 advantage with under five minutes left in the half. David Johnson’s three-point play with 9:18 to go pushed the lead to 11, and after a pair of Langston buckets, the Rams scored the final five points in the half to take a 38-26 lead into the break.

In the second half, it was Kenny Johnson again who opened the scoring, this time on a nice drive to the basket. Four quick points by the Lions shrunk the lead to ten, but Whaley buried a three, David Johnson threw down a monster dunk, and Whitfield followed with his first three of the night to put the Rams comfortably in front at 48-30 with 16 minutes to play.

Gladney and Whaley combined for nine points over the next five minutes to help push the lead out to 20, and the Lions would never get closer than 12 the rest of the way. The Rams began milking the clock, and cruised easily to an 83-66 win.

Nate Jones led the Lions with 17 points on six of nine shooting and five of eight free throws. He also led all players with 11 rebounds. Roy Henderson scored 14, Nick Traylor had 12 points, and Quentin Beaty pulled down ten boards for Langston.

As a team, the Lions shot just 36 percent from the floor, 29 percent from three-point distance, and 54 percent from the free throw line.

Aside from Whaley’s game-high 26, four other Rams reached double-figures in the scoring column. David Johnson, Kenny Johnson, and James Whitfield each scored 12, and Joey Gladney connected for ten points.

David Johnson led the squad with nine rebounds, followed closely by his brother Kenny with eight boards. Gladney and Whaley each had seven rebounds, and Whitfield recorded six. Brad Schilder scored nine with four rebounds.

The Rams shot 45 percent from the floor, 38 percent from beyond the arc, and 66 percent from the line.

The Rams (21-10, 13-6 in conference) close out the regular season on Monday night, taking on Bacone College in the Sid Richardson Gymnasium at 7:30 PM. Win or lose, the Rams will host a first-round playoff game on Saturday March 8th.