RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech men's basketball team pushed their winning streak out to five games on Tuesday night as they stepped out of Great American Conference play and beat Central Baptist at home by a score of 87-69.
The Wonder Boys, who are now 5-2 on the season, were lifted offensively by Taleon Peter and
Cassius Brooks as the two combined for 35 points. Brooks was two points off his season-high as he scored 16 points off 6-of-11 shooting overall with 2-of-3 coming from long range and 2-of-3 from the free throw line.
Peter, who just hours earlier was named the Division II National Player of the Week by the D2 Conference Information Directors of America (D2CIDA), scored 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting overall with 5-of-7 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the charity stripe. It was the third-consecutive game and fourth overall this season that Peter has reached 20 points or more in scoring.
Seven other Wonder Boys contributed points in the game three scoring at least seven points.
As far as how the game played out, the Wonder Boys led wire-to-wire after
Tommy Kamarad made good on an easy layup off a feed by
Josh Mitchell on their first possession after winning the tip-off.
The Wonder Boys would go on to push their lead out to double-digits by the 15:02 mark and never looked back. By the 3:43 mark, the lead was as large as 23 points thanks to thunderous dunk by Peter. By halftime, the Wonder Boys enjoyed a 22-point lead, 44-22.
Second half action was more back and forth and Central Baptist found some footing offensively shooting the ball and also from the free throw line. In the second half, the Mustangs shot 54% overall from the floor (14-of-26), 5-of-9 (56%) from three-point range and 74% (14-of-19) from the free throw line.
That helped the Mustangs get a close as 13 points on a pair of occasions in the second half with the last being at the 8:31 mark, but the Wonder Boys eventually got their lead back in the 20s and cruised to an 18-point margin of victory.
The Wonder Boys will now return to Great American Conference play and hit the road this Saturday to take on Henderson State. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 3 p.m. from the Duke Wells Center in Arkadelphia.
