RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – A slow start offensively gave way to a furious second-half comeback by the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team as the Wonder Boys rallied to beat Southern Arkansas at home, 69-57, on Sunday evening.
The slow offensive start saw the Wonder Boys struggle through a 23-point first half in which they shot just 23% overall from the floor (5-of-22). Despite their struggles on the offensive end, however, the Wonder Boys kept themselves in the game on the defensive end as they held SAU to 31 points on 41% shooting in the first half (14-of-34).
Early in the second half, SAU stayed out in front and was able to hold off the Wonder Boys' initial surges. That was, of course, until the 7:32 mark when Tech's
Taelon Peter hit a three-pointer to trim the Wonder Boys' nine-point deficit to six points, 52-46.
The Peter trifecta turned out to be the spark of the game-changing run that the Wonder Boys would go on over the next six and a half minutes, or essentially the remainder of the game. In all, it was a 20-0 run that flipped a nine-point deficit into an 11-point lead with less than a minute to play.
After Peter's three-pointer, the Wonder Boys would get layups by
Josh Mitchell and Peter to pull within two points, but perhaps the biggest shot of the entire run was a three-pointer by
Kade Shaffer at the 4:12 mark with the shot clock expiring.
That bucket gave the Wonder Boys the lead and they would go on to build on it from there as their defense put the clamps down on SAU. Over the final seven and a half minutes or so of the game, the Wonder Boys held SAU to just five points on 2-of-10 shooting overall from the floor (1-of-2 free throws) and forced six turnovers.
The win keeps the Wonder Boys unbeaten at home and in Great American Conference play. At 4-0 in league action, the Wonder Boys are atop the standings heading into the Christmas break and are the lone unbeaten team in the GAC.
Statistically, the Wonder Boys were led in scoring by Peter, who led all scorers with 25. Peter was 6-of-12 overall from the floor, 3-of-6 from three and 10-of-13 from the free throw line.
Tommy Kamarad was next with 11 and Mitchell rounded out double-figure scoring with 10 points. Mitchell also led the team in rebounds with six and racked up four blocks.
The Wonder Boys will now enter into their mid-season break and will resume their season schedule at home on Thursday, January 4 against East Central. Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
