While most people were eating turkey and celebrating Thanksgiving with their family, Coach Boone and his team were prepping for the weekend's Thanksgiving Classic.
UAFS hosted the Thanksgiving Classic which consisted of four regional based teams. The teams being UAFS, Harding, Ouachita Baptist, and Oklahoma Christian. UAFS only had to face Harding and Ouachita Baptist however, due to Central Oklahoma being in the Lone Star Conference.
Friday night the Lions took down Harding in a close battle that saw UAFS comeback in the second half. Despite a night where redshirt freshman Payton Brown only shot 4-16 FG, he managed to lead the team in scoring with 16, while junior transfer Connor Slater added 12 points of his own. The two were the only Lions in double digits.
For Harding they saw three players get into double digits that included Taylor Currie leading the team in points. Thanks to his efforts the Bisons were able to shoot 43% from the field with an additional 40% from three and were perfect on all 5 free throw opportunities.
While Harding shot better from the three point line(3-16) and free throw line(19-29), the Lions ended the night shooting 46% thanks to a second half that saw them shoot 52%. It was the points in the paint as well as the turnover battle that pushed the lions to victory.
Coming off that close win, the Lions faced the Ouachita Baptist Tigers. They came out firing, outscoring the Tigers by 19 in the first half. UAFS shot 58% from the field compared to 33% for the Tigers. Both teams shot better in the second half as the Lions finished the game shooting 59% while the Tigers shot a respectable 48%.
Scoring for the Lions was all Payton Brown as he led the Lions in points as he finished the night with 39 points, knocking down 6 threes. Connor Slater added another 17 points to his weekend while Jaxon Ingram got into double digits and finished with 14 points.
Points in the paint, points off turnovers, and the production from their bench seemed to be the Lions calling card this weekend. They brought their winning streak up to four games and sit at 4-2 on the season as they head into conference play.
With a full slate of conference games left on the schedule, the Lions take a trip to Texas to face West Texas A&M before returning to Stubblefield on December 8th.