RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Playing less than 24 hours after their most-recent game at Ouachita, the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team had the benefit of playing on their home court on Saturday night as they played host to (RV) Southern Arkansas inside Tucker Coliseum. Tech and visiting SAU, who also played last night at Harding, would go on to lock horns in a 40-minute defensive struggle, but ultimately it was SAU that edged out Tech by a score of 61-58.
 
In the game, SAU established control early and built a lead out as large as 10 points, 19-9, with 11:09 left on the clock in the first half. The Wonder Boys (6-7, 4-7 GAC) would find their footing on offense over the next four or so minutes of game time and pulled to within three points, 19-16, with 7:29 left thanks to a 7-0 scoring run.
 
The Muleriders (10-3, 9-3 GAC) would weather that initial push by the Wonder Boys and remained out in front. Trailing by five points with under two minutes to play in the opening half, the Wonder Boys knotted the score at 27-all before halftime on a layup by Kevin Howard at the 1:08 mark and a three-pointer by Cameron Kennedy right before the horn went off.
 
In that low-scoring first half, the Muleriders shot 37% overall (10-of-27) and were also 37% from three-point range (4-of-11). At the free throw line, SAU missed just once in four tries. The numbers were similar for the Wonder Boys through the first 20 minutes as they too shot 37% overall from the floor (10-of-27). The difference was the number of made three-pointers and free throws as Tech had one fewer make from distance and one more make from the charity stripe.
 
Gridlocked heading into the locker room, it was the Wonder Boys who jumped out to the first lead of the second half. After grabbing that initial lead, the Wonder Boys would grow their lead out as large as six points, 35-29, at the 15:10 mark. Consecutive three-pointers over the next minute of action by the Muleriders erased that lead and knotted the score up at 35-all.
 
Tech and SAU then traded three-pointers and free throws over the next three minutes as the margin remained razor thin between the two teams.
 
At the 9:22 mark, SAU flipped a one-point game in their favor on a successful two-shot trip to the free throw line. That ended up being the final lead change of the game despite the Wonder Boys getting as close as a point three separate times the rest of the way out.
 
Two of those instances came with the game clock below 40 seconds, but clutch free throw makes from that point on by the Muleriders kept the Wonder Boys at bay.
 
Individually, the Wonder Boys had three players score in double figures with Tony Hall leading the way with 14 points. Behind Hall in scoring was Justin Briley with 11 points off the bench. Cejay Mann rounded out double-figure scoring with 10 points.
 
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for a home game this coming Thursday night against Arkansas-Monticello. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.