HAYS, Kan. – What a difference a day makes. One day after struggling out of the gate and dropping their season-opener to Fort Hays State, the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team flipped the script on Sunday evening and came out on fire early in their game against Emporia State. Tech would ride that hot start wire-to-wire en route to their first victory of the season, beating Emporia 77-61.
The role reversal from Saturday to Sunday saw the Wonder Boys (1-1) make five of their first six shot as they raced out to a 13-0 lead by the 16:32 mark of the opening half. Emporia State would not break the seal on their scoring until the 15:27 mark on a pair of made free throws by Tray Buchanan.
During that opening salvo by the Wonder Boys, four different players scored, foreshadowing what turned out to be a balanced scoring effort all around.
Czar Perry, who led the team a night ago with 19 points, scored the first points for Tech and then assisted on 2021 GAC Freshman of the Year
Cejay Mann's first points of the season as Mann buried a three-pointer.
Cameron Kennedy then scored the next five points on a mid-range jumper and a three-pointer.
Tony Hall capped that initial surge with a three-pointer of his own.
All four of those Wonder Boys would go on to score double figures with Hall and Kennedy scoring 14 points and Mann and Perry 12 points each, respectively. Nine players saw action on the court for the Wonder Boys with eight scoring.
Niko Gosnell also reached double figures coming off the bench as he scored 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
After jumping out to the big lead, the Wonder Boys were able to sustain the momentum throughout the first half and carried a comfortable 40-17 lead into the locker room.
During that first half, the Wonder Boys shot over 50% overall from the floor (18-of-34) and were 50% from three-point range (4-of-8). Tech did not attempt a free throw in the first half. Conversely, on the other end of the court, the Hornets (1-1) shot just 28% overall from the floor (7-of-25) and were successful on just 1-of-12 tries from three-point range. The Hornets were a perfect 2-of-2 from the charity stripe.
The second half saw a couple of surges by the Hornets as they pulled the score to within nine points on two separate occasions. In each instance, however, the Wonder Boys answered right back with a bucket on their ensuing possession to push the lead back out to double digits. The last of those comeback efforts came at the five-minute mark of the second half and saw Mann push the lead back to double digits on a mid-range jumper. That was then followed with a dagger three-pointer by Kennedy.
The Wonder Boys will now have just over a week to prepare to make their home debut in 2021-22 as they are set to host Missouri Southern on Tuesday, November 23. Tip-off for the non-conference game is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside Tucker Coliseum.
