DURANT, Okla. – The top-two men's basketball teams in the Great American Conference, Arkansas Tech and Southeastern Oklahoma, squared off in Durant on Thursday and the game more than lived up to its billing with 10 lead changes and a dozen tie scores. Ultimately, however, it was Southeastern that would come away with the win, edging out Tech by a score of 70-66.
Entering Thursday night's showdown, the Wonder Boys were 10-2 in the GAC and held a one game lead in the conference standings over Southeastern Oklahoma. With a win against the Savage Storm at home back in early January, the Wonder Boys were looking to sweep the series and take a two-game lead over Southeastern. On the other end of the court, however, the Savage Storm were seeking to avenge that earlier matchup and pull into a tie with Tech atop the standings.
Early action in the game provided a glimpse of what was to come as the two teams traded haymakers from beyond the arc as they combined for six makes from range through the first six and a half minutes. All but one of those makes either tied the score or gave their team the lead.
The remainder of the first half was closely contested as the largest lead for either side was four points. That high watermark of a lead was in favor of Tech and came at the 11:11 mark on a layup by
Josh Mitchell. Southeastern quickly answered with a three-pointer on the other end to pull within a single point, 15-14.
By the 9:42 mark, the Savage Storm had grabbed the lead with a pair of free throws and pushed that lead out to three points with two more makes from the line on their next possession.
The last half of the opening 20 minutes saw two lead changes and six tie scores. The last of those ties came with just under a minute left in the half and was a three-pointer by
Cassius Brooks.
Early second half action saw little in the way of separation between Tech and Southeastern as the largest lead through the first media timeout was only three points, held by the Wonder Boys at the 15:56 mark. That lead at the time was gained thanks to a tie-breaking three-pointer by
Tommy Kamarad.
The Wonder Boys would then start to settle into the lead and stayed in front of the Savage Storm until the 2:37 mark. At that point, Southeastern converted an old-fashioned three-point play that broke a 64-all tie. Prior to that, the Wonder Boys had built a lead as large as nine points at the 8:39 mark.
Southeastern capturing the lead at that moment ended up representing the final lead change of the game as they held off Tech in the final minutes by making three of four free throws over the final 40 seconds.
Statistically, the Wonder Boys had three players score in double figures and were led by Brooks and his season-high 20 points. One off that pace was Kamarad with 19.
Taelon Peter rounded out double-figure scoring with 14 points.
The Wonder Boys will now look to bounce back on Saturday afternoon at East Central. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 3 p.m. from the Kerr Acitivities Center in Ada.
