RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Henderson State took over sole possession of first place in the league standings after recording a 10-point victory over cross-street rival Ouachita Baptist, highlighting the results from Monday’s Great American Conference men’s basketball contests.
HENDERSON STATE 80, OUACHITA BAPTIST 70
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – After a tight back-and-forth first half, the GAC’s second best scoring team Henderson State (10-6, 5-1 GAC) outscored Ouachita Baptist (11-5, 4-2 GAC) 48-36 in the second half to record an 80-70 road victory over the Tigers on Monday in the first installment of the “Battle of the Ravine” basketball edition. The win also vaults HSU into sole possession of first place in the GAC standings as the only one-loss team in conference games. The first half of Monday night’s contest featured nine lead changes and six tied scores with neither team leading by more than six points until the 1:13 mark of the period following a three-pointer by OBU’s Austin Mitchell to put the Tigers up by three. HSU responded with a 5-0 scoring run in the final minute of the half to cut OBU’s lead to two points at halftime. The Reddies took a one-point lead on their first possession of the second half on a three-pointer from DenzelLyles. From that point, HSU led for the remainder of the contest, with the exception of a 36-all tie with 17:25 remaining. The Tigers cut the deficit to just two points on two different occasions in the final 10 minutes, each time answered with a three-pointer from the Reddies. HSU’s Denzel Lyles led all scorers with 23 points after making 8-of-16 shots during the game, including six three-pointers. Austin Mitchell led OBU with 17 points.
ARKANSAS TECH 69, HARDING 57
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas Tech (12-4, 4-2 GAC) nearly doubled its first half scoring total in the second half en route to defeating Harding (8-8, 3-3 GAC) by a final score of 69-57 on Monday night at home inside Tucker Coliseum. Just two days after scoring 94 points in a loss to Henderson State, ATU was held to just 24 points and 30 percent shooting in the first half. But luckily for the Wonder Boys, Harding only made 24 percent of its first half shots for 18 points to give ATU the slight edge in the low-scoring first half. Both teams caught steam in the second half. ATU shot 46 percent from the field and made 5-of-10 shots fromthree-point range, while Harding connected on 11-of-24 field goal attempts for a 45.8 percent second half shooting performance. The Wonder Boys grew theirlead to as much as 17 points in the second half following a pair of free-throws from Jared Williamson at the 10:20 mark to give his team a 49-32 advantage. The Bisons stayed in the game, trimming the ATU lead to single-digits with justover three minutes remaining, and eventually getting to within seven points of the Wonder Boys at the 2:17 mark following an old-fashioned three-point play from HU’s Andrew Silverman. ATU closed out the remainder of the contest on a 10-5 run, finalizing the scoring on a pair of free throws from Jared Williamson with 28 seconds remaining on the clock. Williamson led all scorers with 21 points, while Kirk Porter led the Bisons with 13 points off the bench.
SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA STATE 73, EAST CENTRAL 50
WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Southwestern Oklahoma State (11-5, 3-4 GAC) scored the game’s first 10 points and had a 15-point lead in the first seven minutes of its 73-50 win at home over East Central (3-14, 0-7 GAC) on Monday night. East Central did not reach the scoreboard until the 15:34 mark of the first half, allowing SWOSU to build an early lead, which it maintained throughout the entire game thanks to 45.8 percent field goal shooting and 43 percent three-point shooting. SWOSU led by as much as 16 points in the first half on a three-pointer from Filip Toric to give his team a 34-18 advantage with 3:26remaining in the period. The Bulldogs extended their lead to 20 points in the first five minutes of the second half after starting the period on an 11-1 scoring run. SWOSU gained its largest lead of the contest at 26 points with3:06 remaining in regulation. Toric led all scorers with 22 points off the bench. Caprest Rhone led ECU with 12 points.
SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 76, ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO 73
MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Despite a second-half rally by Arkansas-Monticello (14-4, 4-2 GAC), Southern Arkansas (11-7, 4-2 GAC) kept responding and never trailed the Boll Weevils in a 76-73 win at home on Monday night inside the W.T. Watson Athletic Center. The Muleriders enjoyed 56 percent field goal shooting in the first half to take a 40-31 lead into the locker room at halftime. UAM outscored SAU 42-36 in the second half and held a 41-31 total advantage in rebounds, but could not capitalize on three chances to tie the game in the final 14 seconds. UAM’s Dwayne Bingham, Sergio Crowe and Ricardo Hall all missed three-point attempts in the final seconds of the game. SAU had led by as much as 16 points in the second half, and were led in scoring Casey Cheshier, who made 6-of-7 shots from the field and 6-of-6 at the free-throw line for a game-high 18 points. Ricardo Hall and Kori Forge led UAM with 17 points each.