Box Score EL RENO – Freshman power forward Frederico Santos scored a season-high 32 points and collected 19 rebounds Thursday night in the Cougar Fieldhouse to lead the Northeastern A&M Golden Norsemen to an 85-77 victory over Redlands Community College.


With the victory coach Dustin Grover's Golden Norse are 4-3 in the Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference and 11-8 overall. The Norsemen return home Monday for an 8 p.m. conference clash with the Mountaineers of Eastern State College in the NEO Fieldhouse.
Santos (6-5 from Rio de Janerio, Brazil) connected on 10 of 12 from the field and a near-perfect 12 of 15 from the free throw line. He also pulled down six offensive rebounds and 13 defensive boards.
“I can't tell you how big Frederico played,” Grover said. “We just kept pounding the ball inside and he kept finding the basket.”
The loss dropped coach Earnest Crumbley's Redlands Cougars to 4-3 in the OCAC and 7-10 on the season.
Redlands received eight points each from Revey Norton and Joey Gripper along with six points each from Quienton Paras and Tavarion Nix to build a 28-10 margin midway through the first half.
After NEO responded with six straight points by Santos and four by Ja'mill Powell to trim the deficit to 28-20, Norton canned two 3-pointers and four points by Roderick Clark along with three free throws by Jared Griffin to construct a 41-25 halftime cushion.
“We went into the locker room and told our team to slow down and not panic,” Grover said. “We told them to play our game and we could get back in it.”
But, the Golden Norse came out in the first five minutes of the second half and fell behind by a 24-point margin at 58-34. Once again Norton, Nix, Gripper and Paras combined to fuel the Cougars outburst.
“Once we got that far behind, we just short of relaxed and started attacking the rim,” Grover said. “That caused them to send us to the line 27 times in the second half.”
Bench players Luther Thomas and Derrick Frye entered the game and contributed eight points each while Powell and Nkosi Ali added six points each to rally the Norsemen to a 62-61 lead with less than three minutes showing on the clock.
Along with the 32-point outburst by Santos, the Golden Norse received 15 points from Ali, Powell 12, Thomas eight, Frye eight, Jake Roach six, Rufus Brown two and Terrance Clemens two points.
Norton paced the Cougars with 25 total points while Gripper contributed 12, Paras 10, Nix 10, Griffin nine, Clark six, D'Anthony Perkins three and Blaine Owens two.
NEO held a 53 to 39 advantage on the boards.
D'Anthony Perkins three,