SHAWNEE, Okla. – A season filled with its ups and downs along the way came to a bitter end in the championship game of the 2023 Great American Conference Men's Basketball Tournament as No. 5-seed Arkansas Tech lost to No. 2-seed Southern Arkansas, 89-69.
Despite the season-ending defeat, the outlook for the near future of the program is bright and expectations should be high moving forward.
In 2023-24, the Wonder Boys are projected to return five players that started double-digit games this past season. In fact, four of their five starters in Sunday's game against SAU are listed as either sophomores or redshirt sophomores in terms of their remaining athletic eligibility.
The bulk of the offensive production of the team this season comes with those projected returners as those five represent five of the team's top-six scorers in 2022-23. Headlined among that is
Taelon Peter. The Russellville product was a Second Team All-GAC selection this year and totaled 479 points in 31 games played for an average of 15.2 ppg, which is the highest by a Wonder Boy since 2019-20. Beyond Peter, the other four projected returners averaged at least 6.9 ppg.
The end result of the season coming to an end in the championship game of the GAC Tournament does not tell the full story of a team that weathered tough stretches and produced highly-successful ones as well.
To start the year, the Wonder Boys got off to an 0-4 start, but challenged themselves in their non-conference scheduling. Most notably, they opened their season by squaring off with a pair of teams that finished in the top-four in the standings in the highly-competitive MIAA, in Emporia State and Fort Hays State. Both of those teams finished tied for third in the final MIAA standings with 15-7 conference records and totaled over 20 wins this season.
Undeterred by that tough start, the Wonder Boys picked up their first win near Thanksgiving against Drury. That sparked a stretch where Tech won eight of 10 games and surged over the .500 mark. They also got off to an impressive 9-2 start in GAC play their first time through the league. Among those nine wins the first time through was the only regular season loss endured by nationally-ranked Southern Nazarene as the Wonder Boys beat the Crimson Storm, 53-48, at home in mid-January.
Adversity struck the team once more, however, starting with a tough overtime loss at Southwestern Oklahoma. The Wonder Boys would drop six of their next seven games and were in a battle to qualify for their first GAC Tournament appearance since 2017-18.
The Wonder Boys would right the ship and secure that berth with a pair of home wins in mid-February against Northwestern Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma. The final two games of the regular season would not go in favor of Tech, but they were assured their first winning season in conference play since that 2017-18 season.
Now with the calendar flipped to March and playing in the conference tournament, the Wonder Boys, as the No. 5-seed, knocked off No. 4-seed East Central and No. 8-seed Ouachita to advance them to their first GAC Tournament Final game since 2015. Those wins also assured that the Wonder Boys would end their 2022-23 season with a winning record, their first since again the 2017-18 campaign.
All told, despite the end to the season, the future is indeed bright and the Wonder Boys will most-certainly #FightOn!
