Tweet #theGAC  SHAWNEE, Okla. – Appearing in their first Great American Conference Tournament game since the 2017-18 season, the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team picked up its first tournament win since the year prior as they beat No. 4-seed East Central by a score of 68-62 in the opening round of the 2023 GAC Men's Basketball Tournament on Friday night.

The quarterfinal round victory for the Wonder Boys advances them to the semifinals where they will take on No. 8-seed Ouachita. The Tigers are fresh off a 70-67 upset win over No. 11 nationally ranked and top-seeded Southern Nazarene on Thursday night.

The semifinal game between Tech and Ouachita will be scheduled for a 5:45 p.m. tip-off time on Saturday, March 4 from FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Okla.

In their game against ECU, one of the key statistics in favor of the Wonder Boys (15-14) was their offensive production off the bench. The Wonder Boys would out-score the Tigers (18-11) 34-7 in points off the bench. All but two of those bench points came from D'Rell Roberts and Kade Shaffer as the two combined for 35 points.

Roberts, who established a season-high in scoring as a Wonder Boy in his last game played with 18 against Southern Arkansas, set a new high watermark with 20 points against ECU. He did so on 5-of-13 shooting overall, 3-of-7 from three-point range and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Shaffer contributed 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting overall, 2-of-4 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the charity stripe.

In earning the tournament win, the Wonder Boys had to overcome a furious early second half scoring run by the Tigers. The run, which started at the 18:17 mark and lasted nearly a full four minutes of game time, was 15-0 and turned a 10-point deficit by ECU into a five-point lead.

That run was finally stopped by Roberts as he knocked down a three-pointer at the 13:27 mark. After grabbing a defensive rebound on the next possession, Roberts was fouled on a three-point attempt and then made good on all three attempts to put the Wonder Boys up by a point, 46-45, with 12:38 to play.

By the 9:44 mark, the Tigers had reclaimed the lead and by the 8:47 mark, led by four points, 50-46.

Over the next five minutes of action, however, the Wonder Boys defense clutched up and held the Tigers scoreless on six field goal attempts while also forcing a steal. During that time, the Wonder Boys would methodically go on a 12-0 scoring run to flip their four-point deficit into an eight-point lead, 58-50, with 3:50 left to play.

The Tigers would attempt to comeback and got within four points on three occasions down the stretch, but a clutch off-balance shot make by Roberts and a perfect 4-of-4 from the line in the waning seconds sealed the win for the Wonder Boys.