St. Greg's Holds Off OBU To Win 'Holy Wars'

Marty Wilkerson scored a game-high 29 points, including four big charity shots late, and St. Gregory's downed No. 17 OBU, 86-81, on the road Thursday night. The Cavaliers took the final regular-season "Holy War" between the MacArthur Street rivals as members of the Sooner Athletic Conference.

St. Gregory's (11-8, 7-4 SAC) moves into a four-way tie for second place in the conference, one game back of first-place MACU. The Cavs and Evangels square off in Oklahoma City Saturday.

Wilkerson, a senior from Memphis, finished 9-of-19 from the floor, including 5-of-10 from three-point range, and dished out five assists. He was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line, but none were bigger than his conversions with just seconds remaining in the game.

Wilkerson was sent to the line with a one-possession lead twice in the final 10 seconds but calmly sank all four of his attempts to give the Cavs their third win over the Bison in their last four meetings.

St. Gregory's connected on 16 three-pointers for the game – its most in more than 10 years. The Cavs shot 52 percent overall and held a 24-2 advantage in bench scoring.

Ty Allen led OBU with 28 points, scoring 18 from behind the three-point line, while Cale Jackson hit three of four long-range tries on his way to 17 points.

Bryon Miller and Aaron Abram had 15 apiece for the Bison, who also went a perfect 16-of-16 from the free throw line.

Senior Dylan Lemley had a big night for SGU, finishing with a season-high 19 points on 8 of 13 from the floor. Both Trey Jones and Kevin Ritchie totaled nine points off the bench.

St. Gregory's held a 40-35 advantage at the break due in large part to its three-point shooting prowess. The Cavs finished the period 10 of 18 from distance, and five different players connected from long range.

Wilkerson made three of them and tied for game-high honors after one half with 11 points. Ritchie (3 of 5 from three-point range) had nine points, helping the Cavaliers shoot 47 percent overall.

OBU (17-6, 6-5 SAC) battled back in the second half and took its first lead of the game at 45-44 with 16:41 remaining on a Ty Allen shot.

It was back-and-forth from there. Tied at 66 with 6:43 remaining, Lemley broke free inside for a bucket that gave SGU a lead it wouldn't relinquish the rest of the way. OBU cut it to two points with 37 seconds left, but the Cavs made five of their final six free-throw attempts to put it away.

St. Gregory's has a Saturday showdown against Mid-America Christian set for 3 p.m. in Oklahoma City. OBU faces John Brown at 5 p.m. Saturday.