CHICKASHA, Okla.  The Tabor College Men's Basketball team traveled south to Chickasha, Oklahoma to face the Drovers of the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The Bluejays were coming off of a heartbreaker loss to York on Saturday, while the Drovers were coming off of a win against Arkansas Baptist on Saturday.
 
The first half started out very even, both teams took turns scoring and trading buckets. The largest lead in the first half for the Bluejays would come when Jack Voth buried a three at the 13:43 mark. The Drovers would start working on building a lead after a Zach Hays layup at the 5:33 mark. That lead would grow to nine. A made free throw from Kenyon Holcombe and two made free throws from Thatcher McClure would briefly stem the tide for the Bluejays, however the Drovers would score four unanswered points to go up ten. A layup from Voth would cut the deficit to eight, but a made free throw from Tre Edwards would give USAO a nine point lead at the half, 38-29. Voth led the Tabor in scoring in the first half with 10, while McClure was right behind him with seven. McClure led the team in rebounding with five, with all five being on the defensive glass.
 
USAO would come out of the break hot, getting out to an early 15 point lead in the second half. Tabor would work to cut the lead to nine, thanks to a dunk from Holcombe, a Jake Proctor layup, and a bucket from McClure. The Drovers would push their lead back out to 12 with a three from Anthony Ray. The teams would go on to trade buckets for a brief period and then the Bluejays looked to be making a run of their own thanks to some big plays from McClure, a layup, defensive rebound, and a three which would cut the Drovers' lead back down to seven. The Drovers would then push their lead back out to 14 with 10:20 to go in the game. Voth would hit a three at the 4:08 mark to bring Tabor back within eight and the Bluejays would take a timeout. The timeout seemed to give the Bleujay men an extra boost, as Holcombe blocked a layup from USAO's Jaden Harrell, and McClure had a steal and a dunk which brought the Bluejays within six. The teams would trade buckets for a bit and Holcombe would go to the free throw line with 27 seconds left and sink one of his free throws. A huge dunk from Voth would bring the Bluejays within five with six seconds remaining. The Drovers would hit a free throw at the end of the game and go on to win by six, 78-72.
 
McClure would explode for 18 points in the second half, which would bring him to a total of 25 points in the game and he would also finish with eight rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Voth had 12 points in the seconds half and would finish with 22 points. Holcombe led the Bluejays on the glass, grabbing ten total boards with eight of them on the defensive glass and two of them on the offensive glass.
 
Tabor College Head Men's Basketball Coach Matt Warren had this to say about his team's gutsy performance, "I thought we took a step in the right direction tonight against a really, really good USAO team. Those guys will be a contender in the Sooner and in the national tournament. For long stretches in the game, we really battled defensively and I was really happy with our ball movement tonight. Like I told the team, you have to do that for 40 minutes to beat talented teams on the road. We were humbled really quickly last week and we had two choices: start to doubt or latch on to our principles and we did the latter tonight. It's all about transferring the learning and reps in practice to the games and that's what our young group is working through right now. This group is just scratching the surface of what we can be so we just have to continue to work. We pray everyone has a safe and blessed thanksgiving!"
 
The Bluejay men will take a quick break for Thanksgiving this week and will be back home for more KCAC action when they host Avila University on Wednesday, November 29th at 8:00 pm.
 
Tabor College is a Christ-centered institution located in Hillsboro, Kansas. The Bluejays are members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and compete in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC).