RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Sophomore guards
BJ Johnson and
Taelon Peter both registered career-highs in scoring on Thursday night to help carry the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team to an 88-79 win at home over Northwestern Oklahoma.
Johnson scored 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor. His previous career-high was 13 points against Angelo State back in November 2021 and his current season-high was 11 points against Oklahoma Baptist. Peter's night saw him score 29 points on 10-of-19 shooting overall, which included 4-of-10 success from long range. Peter was also 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. His previous career-high was 28 points, a feat he has accomplished twice with the most-recent instance coming in his last game against Harding on Monday night.
The win allowed the Wonder Boys to hold serve in the Great American Conference standings where they were in fourth place entering play on Thursday night. With three games left in the regular season, the magic number for Tech to clinch a berth into the GAC Tournament is at one. Any win by Tech over the final three games will clinch as well as any loss by either Southwestern Oklahoma or Ouachita.
Tech and SWOSU will play one another on Saturday afternoon inside Tucker Coliseum.
In regards to Thursday's win, the big scoring nights by Johnson and Peter were a part of a larger offensive clinic that was put on by the Wonder Boys (13-12, 11-8 GAC) against the Rangers (11-12, 7-12 GAC) and it started pretty much from the opening tip-off.
The Wonder Boys would come out of the gate on fire offensively as they darted out a double-digit lead by the 7:11 mark of the first half. Through the rest of the half, Tech held a double-digit lead and grew it as large as 16 points with 3:46 to go in the half. By the end of the first stanza, the Wonder Boys led 46-35.
In that first half, the Wonder Boys shot 59% overall from the floor (17-of-29) and were a scintillating 53% from three-point range as they made eight of 15.
That highly-efficient shooting did not slow down as the Wonder Boys shot 58% from the floor (14-of-24) in the second half. The three-point percentage dipped some, but the three makes in the second half were good enough to set a single-game high for the team with 11 total.
Tech would lead by double-digits throughout most of the second half, but around the six-minute mark, the Wonder Boys had to stem the tide on a fierce NWOSU comeback attempt that saw the Rangers get as close as six points on two occasions. The Wonder Boys were indeed able to bend and not break and eventually ended with a nine-point victory.
In addition to Johnson and Peter scoring in double figures,
Tommy Kamarad and
Wes Harris also scored in double figures with Kamarad scoring 13 and Harris 11.
Andre Leavell did a great job facilitating the offense all night as he ended with a season-high 10 assists.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for their next game which will come on Saturday afternoon against Southwestern Oklahoma. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.
