DURANT, Okla. – A tale of two halves played out on Saturday afternoon inside Bloomer Sullivan Arena as a great first half by the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team was upstaged in the second half by Southeastern Oklahoma. The role reversal from one half to the other was enough for Southeastern Oklahoma to complete a hefty comeback effort and deal Tech a 74-67 loss.
 
In the first half, the Wonder Boys (6-10, 3-7 GAC) grabbed the early lead and took advantage of a slow offensive start by the Savage Storm (14-4, 9-3 GAC).
 
Leading by three points, 11-8, with just under 14 minutes left in the first half, the Wonder Boys ripped off a 21-2 run over the next six minutes of game time to surge ahead by 22 points, 32-10. During that remarkable run, the Wonder Boys were 8-of-13 overall from the field and 5-of-6 from three-point range.
 
In fact, the Wonder Boys hit three-pointers on three-consecutive possessions to close out the run. Notably, each of those three-pointers was made by a different Wonder Boy as Niko Gosnell, Taelon Peter and Cejay Mann knocked them down from range.
 
The last of those threes prompted a timeout by Southeastern and coming out of it, the Savage Storm went on a 6-0 scoring burst to get their footing back. The Wonder Boys would remain out in front the remainder of the half and held a 16-point lead, 40-24, at the break.
 
Early action in the second half favored Southeastern as the Savage Storm got the Tech lead down to single digits at the 14:52 mark. Eventually, SE pulled all the way back to even with the Wonder Boys, 40-all, at the 9:14 mark.
 
On their ensuing possession, Southeastern grabbed their first lead of the game. Over the next three minutes or so of action, the score would be tied on three separate occasions, but the Wonder Boys were unable to flip the score back in their favor.
 
The final tie was 54-all at the 5:20 mark following a mid-range jumper by Tony Hall. Southeastern promptly untied the game the ensuing trip down the floor with a three-pointer.
 
From there, the Savage Storm were able to remain out in front and hold the Wonder Boys at bay thanks to a perfect 13-of-13 showing from the charity stripe over the final five minutes of the game.
 
Free throw shooting, in fact, was an underlying factor in the game based on the glaring discrepancy of attempts.
 
After only one free throw attempt for either team in the first half, which was taken by Southeastern Oklahoma, the Savage Storm went on to take 22 attempts in the second half. That compared to continued no attempts for the Wonder Boys. The Savage Storm were also able to make the most of those opportunities as they missed just one free throw and were 22-of-23 for the game.
 
In terms of other statistics, the Wonder Boys had four players score in doubles figures. Three of those came off the bench, including from the leading scorer, Cejay Mann, who had 15 points. Mann was 5-of-9 from three-point range.
 
Next was Kevin Howard with 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Niko Gosnell and Taelon Peter each had 11 points off the bench. Peter was perfect from the floor, 4-of-4 overall and 3-of-3 from long range. Gosnell was 5-of-9 including his first three-pointer as a Wonder Boy.
 
Another standout number from the stat sheet was in the rebounding department as Tony Hall had 17 boards (15 defensive, two offensive). His 17 rebounds were a career-high and the most in a game since Will Adler had 15 rebounds against William Jewell back in 2018.
 
The Wonder Boys remain on the road and will wrap their three-game Oklahoma road swing on Monday night as they are set to take on Southern Nazarene. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.