BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Tournament MVP Tirrell Brown scored the first seven points of Sunday’s Great American Conference Men’s Basketball Championship final to jumpstart Ouachita who defeated Harding, 72-56, to win its second GAC Tournament title and claim its second bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Brown finished with a game-high 24 points and added eight rebounds for the Tigers (19-12). For the GAC Championships, he averaged 21.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and made 24-of-37 from the floor, good for a 64.9 percent clip.
 
Ouachita led for most of the first half as Harding (20-10) only led twice, each time by a single point. The Tigers finished with a flourish as they closed the half on a 27-5 run to lead 48-25. The Tigers shot 56.3 percent as compared to the Bisons’ 26.5 percent. Following her record-setting 40-point performance in semifinals, Harding’s Jacob Gibson connected on just 2-for-8 attempts and he missed all five of his 3-point tries.
 



The Bisons tried to pull off the improbable comeback by scoring 20 of the first 24 points of the second half to cut the deficit to 52-45, however they drew no closer the remainder of the contest. Despite making only 5-of-27 shots in the second half, the Tigers converted 14-of-17 from the free-throw line and continued to stymie Harding’s offense. The Bisons went 10-for-30 in the second half and finished the game shooting 29.7 percent from the floor and 24.2 percent from the 3-point arc.
 
David Berete and Lakee Westbrook joined Brown on the All-Tournament Team. Westbrook averaged 11.0 points per game while Berete averaged 10 points and 6.7 rebounds in the three wins. Gibson, Will Francis and Reggie Anthony represented Harding on the All-Tournament team. East Central’s Stirling Thomas and Southern Arkansas’ Deon Andrews rounded out the eight-man All-Tournament Team.
 
The Tigers, with the automatic bid and the Bisons as the No. 7 team in the final regular-season NCAA Division II Central Region rankings, will learn their postseason destiny during Sunday evening’s NCAA Selection Show. It streams on NCAA.com at 9:30 p.m.