RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — Another huge run and five players in double figures pushed the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team to its third straight victory, avenging an earlier loss to Southern Nazarene with an 81-64 Great American Conference win Saturday afternoon at Tucker Coliseum.

Mike Balogun led the way with 14 points and six assists for the Wonder Boys (12-12, 8-8 GAC), who are back to .500 for the first time since the middle of January. D.J. Jethroe collared his first double-double of the season with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, while Tyler Friedel added 13 points, Branden Williams 10 points, five rebounds and three steals in just 15 minutes, and Willard 10 points, four assists and four rebounds to blow past the Crimson Storm (12-11, 8-9 GAC).

"I emphasized before the game, especially to the seniors, I said, 'Fellas, we only have two more times to put a uniform on in this building,'" coach Chad Kline said. "We wanted to make sure we didn't come out and lay an egg, for sure."

Tech put forth its best first half of the season, shooting 20-of-37 to hold a 50-26 advantage at the break. Six players hit at least a pair of field goals in the opening stanza, with Jethroe leading the way with 13 points and six rebounds. Friedel hit 3-of-5 from deep to help himself to 11 points.

The two sides traded baskets early, with three lead changes and three ties in the first 5:29. After SNU cut the lead to 16-15 at the 13:56 mark though, the Wonder Boys put together a huge run that seems to be becoming a hallmark of the team at home. A Friedel trey made the lead four, but the Storm were able to answer to make it 19-17 with 12:35 to go in the half. Starting with a three-point play from Jethroe, Tech scored 31 of the final 40 points of the half, turning a two-point lead into a comfortable 24-point cushion.

A Jay Murphy layup and 3-pointer from Balogun helped keep pace with SNU over the next four minutes, with the Crimson storm still within 30-23 with 8:23 to play. Back-to-back slams from Gary Gaskins—on feeds from Murphy—started off a 9-0 run that stretched the lead to 16 after a Williams stick-back with 5:14 to go. After the Storm temporarily stopped the momentum with a 3-pointer, Williams followed with a three-point play to kick off an 11-0 stretch, which saw Jethroe, Williams, Friedel and Clarence Willard polish off four straight makes to head to the locker room up 24.

Another dunk from Gaskins got the Wonder Boys started in the second, and a Balogun 3-pointer made it 57-29, the 28-point lead Tech's biggest of the game. SNU got the lead back under 20 for the first time in nearly eight minutes when they pulled it to 57-39 with 14:00 to play. The Storm would get as close as down 16, 61-45 at the 12:16 mark, and were down 17 with 9:48 left before Friedel, Balogun and Bryson Fletcher each hit layups to push it back to a 22-point advantage. When Williams and Balogun hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 78-52, the benches emptied for the final five-plus minutes.

The Wonder Boys shot 48.4 percent for the game while holding the Storm to 39.0 percent. They won the rebounding battle 43-32, points in the paint 38-20, second-chance points 22-13 and points off turnovers 17-12.
"Obviously their strategy coming in was to zone us," Kline said. "They started that trend when they beat us to send us on that three-game losing streak, and everyone else followed. We started shooting the ball a lot better lately though. I thought that when we shot the ball well and forced them out of that zone, it was going to help us out a lot."

Next up, the Wonder Boys head to Oklahoma for the final time this regular season, starting with a trip to East Central 7:30 Thursday evening.