RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – After being tied at halftime, the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team erased a nine-point second-half deficit and ended up pulling away late for an 82-74 win at home on Saturday afternoon against Southwestern Oklahoma.
The first half of Saturday's clash with SWOSU ended up being closely-contested with seven lead changes and four tie scores. It was also a very efficient half offensively for both teams as each team shot over 50% overall from the floor.
Coming out of the break, the offenses for the Wonder Boys and Bulldogs remained efficient, but the Bulldogs managed to create some separation and grabbed their largest lead of nine points, 55-46, at the 13:49 mark.
A little over three minutes of game time later, the SWOSU lead was now eight points, 65-57, but with just over nine minutes left on the game clock, the Wonder Boys began their comeback effort in full force. Over the course of the next three minutes of action, Tech went on an 8-0 run to knot the game at 65-all.
Sparking the run was a runout layup by
Trey Allen III after
Kade Shaffer came away with a steal. Second later, the Wonder Boys got another steal and this time it was
Taelon Peter who knocked down a three in transition. The run was then capped by
Tommy Kamarad on a completed and-one following a layup.
That tie did not last long, however, as the Bulldogs came down the court on their ensuing possession and knocked down a three-pointer to stay in the lead. A few possessions later, the Bulldogs pushed their lead out to five points with 5:38 to play.
The Wonder Boys responded and consecutive three's by Kamarad gave them their first lead of the second half, 73-72, with 4:02 to play. The lead then changed hands on back-to-back possessions, but the final change was in favor of the Wonder Boys thanks to a painted jumper by Shaffer with 3:12 to go.
Tech then began to get stops on defense and were converting on their offensive end to start to pull away from SWOSU. Perhaps the biggest play in the later moments of the game came with just under 50 seconds left and Tech leading by three points, 77-74. Out of a timeout called by the Wonder Boys, Shaffer and Peter executed a successful ally-oop dunk play to push the lead out to five points.
The Wonder Boys would then go on to get more stops on defense and made 3-of-4 from the free throw line to get the game to its final margin of eight points, 82-74.
Statistically, the Wonder Boys shot 57% overall from the floor (31-of-54) and were 12-of-23 from three-point range for 52% success. Individually, they had three players score in double figures and two go for over 20, marking the first time since 2022 that they had at least two players score 20 or more points in a game.
The Wonder Boys were led in scoring against SWOSU by Peter's 25 points. Kamarad was next as he tied his career-high with 22 points. Shaffer rounded out double-figure scoring with 14 points. He also added a career-high eight assists.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for two more home game next week as they first will take on Harding on Thursday, January 25. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside Tucker Coliseum.
