MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The 2021-22 season came to a close for the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team on Saturday as they played on the road at Southern Arkansas. Tech would come up short in the season finale, losing by a score of 74-61.
 
The game also brought a close to the Wonder Boy careers of Tony Hall, Kevin Howard and Cameron Kennedy. Hall scored seven points in his final game as a Wonder Boy while Howard and Kennedy each scored five.
 
Hall ends his career with 750 points scored in 70 games played for an average of 10.7 ppg. He was also a 40% shooter overall for his career and a 34% shooter from long range. On the glass, Hall pulled down 366 total rebounds for an average of 5.2 for his career.
 
Howard ended with 42 games played as a Wonder Boy and a total of 272 points for an average of 6.5 ppg. An efficient scorer inside, Howard was a 55% career shooter overall. He added 164 rebounds for an average of 3.9 boards per game at Tech.
 
Kennedy continually improved in his time as a Wonder Boy and ended up playing in 63 games. Increasing his offensive production each season, Kennedy ended with 456 points scored for an average of 7.2 ppg. A sharpshooter from deep, Kennedy buried 103 three-pointers in his career and shot 43% from that distance.
 
As far as game action went on Saturday, the Wonder Boys (10-18, 7-15 GAC) fell into an early hole as the Muleriders (17-11, 13-9 GAC) scored the game's first eight points of the game. Tech would get their first basket at the 15:33 mark on a three-pointer by BJ Johnson. Just about two minutes later, a three by Kennedy gave the Wonder Boys their first lead of the game at 10-9.
 
The lead then changed hands twice over the next few minutes of action. The last of those in that sequence was a three-pointer from Taelon Peter that broke a 12-all tie. The Wonder Boys remained in the lead until the 8:03 mark when the Muleriders hit a three to go up by a point.
 
The back-and-forth nature of the first half continued as there were four more lead changes before the break. The last of those lead changes went in favor of SAU as they swung ahead with just over a minute to go in the first half and eventually carried a four-point lead into the locker room.
 
As back-and-forth as the first half was, there was not a single lead change in the second half as the Muleriders stayed out in front the entirety of the second 20 minutes of play. The Wonder Boys would get within a bucket on three occasions, but each time SAU had a quick answer to keep Tech at arm's length.
 
In the later part of the second half, the Muleriders stretched their lead out to double digits and kept that margin of separation until the final 13-point victory.
 
Statistically, the Wonder Boys had three players score in double figures with Niko Gosnell leading the way with 13 points. Peter was next with 11 points and BJ Johnson rounded out double-figure scoring with 10.