ADA, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech men's basketball team engineered their largest comeback effort of the season as they erased an 18-point second-half deficit and came-from-behind for a thrilling 84-79 road win at East Central on Saturday afternoon.
Prior to the late-game theatrics, the Wonder Boys were in a back-and-forth battle with ECU through the first eight minutes of action. During that initial stretch, the lead changed hands on six occasions. The last of those changes went in favor of ECU at the 12:03 mark when a three-pointer broke a 13-all tie.
By the 5:02 mark, the Tigers would push their lead out to double-digits. They then pushed it as large as 17 points with under 40 seconds left in the half before the Wonder Boys closed on an 8-2 run to pull within 11 points at the break, 48-37.
In the second half, the Tigers continued to lead and held a high-watermark advantage of 18 points, 63-45, at the 14-minute mark. Just under five and a half minutes later, the Wonder Boys pulled within single digits on a layup by
Tommy Kamarad. Shortly thereafter, however, the Tigers were back in front by double digits.
Trailing by 11 points, 78-67, at the 5:07 mark, the Wonder Boys would then go on their game-changing charge.
Sparked by a layup by
Cassius Brooks at the 4:39 mark, the Wonder Boys ripped off a 13-1 run over the next three minutes of action to surge into the lead. The final shot in that stretch was a clutch three-pointer by reserve player
Isaac Ragland. The three-ball gave Ragland 10 points in the game to give him a season-high in scoring.
Now with their first lead since the 13:47 mark of the first half, the Wonder Boys were able to salt the game away at the free throw line making four-of-four down the stretch to give them the five-point win.
Statistically, the Wonder Boys had five players score in double figures and were led by
Taelon Peter and his 26 points. Peter also added seven rebounds and two blocks to his stat line. Brooks was next in scoring with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting overall. Kamarad, Ragland and
Sean Cobb all scored 10 points apiece to round out double-figure scoring for the Wonder Boys.
The Wonder Boys will now return home for a pair of games next week starting first with a Thursday night contest against Southern Nazarene. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside Tucker Coliseum.
