SHAWNEE, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech men's basketball team pushed their winning streak to 11 games and remained unbeaten in Great American Conference play, 7-0, on Thursday night thanks to a thrilling come-from-behind win on the road at Oklahoma Baptist, 68-65.
The 11-game winning streak is the longest since the 2016-17 season when Tech won 11-straight games.
In what was their first road trip across state lines in conference play, the Wonder Boys were locked in a tight battle with the Bison from the outset. During the first half of action, there were four tie scores, seven lead changes and neither team held a lead larger than five points at any moment in the opening 20 minutes.
By the end of the first half, the gap was just two points, 35-33, between the Wonder Boys and Bison thanks to a trio of made free throws by Tech's
Braden Tanner as he was fouled on a three-point attempt as time expired on the game clock.
Early second half action was closely-contested, but about five minutes into the final period, Oklahoma Baptist began to create some separation as they took a nine-point lead at the 15:03 mark thanks to a conversion of a traditional three-point play.
Seemingly undeterred by that, the Wonder Boys answered right back with a 9-0 run over the next 2:41 of game time to knot the game up at 47-all with 12:22 left. The Bison would not relinquish the lead just yet, but a
Tommy Kamarad three-pointer at the 11:16 mark gave Tech their first lead since the 7:36 mark of the first half.
About a minute later, Oklahoma Baptist regained the lead on a pair of made free throws. The Bison would stay out in front over the next seven minutes of game action, but were unable to really pull away from Tech.
Trailing by five points with just under five minutes left on the clock, the Wonder Boys tied things up by the 2:59 mark on a three-pointer by
Taelon Peter. Moments later, Peter buried another trifecta, this time to give Tech a one-point lead, 63-62, with 2:19 to play.
While that go-ahead three by Peter represented the final lead change of the game, the Bison were still more than in the game having tied the score twice down the stretch. The last of those came at the 23-second mark when Terry Conor Jr. hit a painted jumper to tie the game at 65-all.
That now gave the Wonder Boys the ball with no shot clock looming and the opportunity to take potentially the final shot of the game. After getting the ball across the timeline following the make by Oklahoma Baptist, the Wonder Boys called a timeout to draw up their final play.
As it played out, the final play was drawn up for Kamarad, who was nails and buried the game-winning three-pointer with just 3.3 seconds left on the clock. Oklahoma Baptist would have enough time for a desperation heave to try and tie the game, but was not successful, giving Tech the thrilling win, 68-65.
Statistically, the Wonder Boys had three players score in double figures and were led by Kamarad and his career-high 22 points. Kamarad's big night offensively saw him connect on 9-of-14 shooting overall and 4-of-7 from long range.
Cassius Brooks was next with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting which included 1-of-1 from three-point range. He was also a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. Peter added 12 points and had half of those come in the final three minutes of the game as he hit clutch three-pointers.
The Wonder Boys will now remain on the road and turn their attention towards this Saturday where they will play on the road at Southern Nazarene. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 3 p.m. from the Sawyer Center in Bethany.
