SHAWNEE, Okla. – For the second-straight year, the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team is playing for the Great American Conference Tournament Championship after they pulled out another thrilling victory, this time beating No. 3-seed Northwestern Oklahoma, 54-53, in the semifinal round on Saturday afternoon.
As the No. 2-seed, the Wonder Boys are the highest remaining seed left in the tournament after top-seeded Southeastern Oklahoma was upset in their semifinal game against No. 4-seed Southern Nazarene, 86-72. Saturday's results set up the winner-take-all game between the Wonder Boys and Crimson Storm on Championship Sunday.
Tip-off for the title game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. from FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Trailing by a point, 53-52, with 19 seconds left in the game, Arkansas Tech junior guard
Cassius Brooks stepped to the free throw line and buried his two attempts to give Tech a one-point lead. Following Brooks' makes, Northwestern Oklahoma brought the ball into the front court and then called timeout with 15 seconds left to set up the final play of the game.
Needing to make one more stop, the Wonder Boys played solid defense around the perimeter and forced the Rangers to take a last-second three-pointer from the corner near their bench. The shot ultimately drew iron and GAC Player of the Year,
Taelon Peter hauled in the defensive rebound as time expired to officially seal the game for the Wonder Boys.
The two clutch free throws by Brooks were his 25
th and 26
th points of the game as he set a new single-game high in scoring against the Rangers. A native of Chicago, Ill., Brooks scored his 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting overall which included 3-of-5 from three-point range. He also bolstered his point total with an unblemished 7-of-7 from the charity stripe.
Prior to Brooks' heroics, the Wonder Boys were playing from behind for much of the game. At one point in the first half, their deficit was as much as 13 points, but they managed to only trail by a point at the break, 31-30.
That deficit, albeit minimal, remained throughout almost the entire length of the second half. The largest the Rangers would push their lead out to in the second half was six points, 44,38, at the 8:22 mark.
From there, the Wonder Boys kept within a couple of possessions of the lead and were down three, 53-50, with just over two minutes left. About a minute later, the Wonder Boys got a huge defensive stand as
Tommy Kamarad blocked a NWOSU shot and grabbed the rebound to emphatically end the possession for the Rangers.
After a timeout was called when the Wonder Boys got across half court, Kamarad drew a shooting foul with just under a minute to go and went to the line for two. Kamarad was also clutch in the moment and made both shots to make it a one-point lead.
The Wonder Boys then got another big defensive stop and defensive rebound by Kamarad after they forced a missed layup by the Rangers. After Kamarad's second-straight big defensive rebound, the Wonder Boys called timeout once more to draw up what they wanted for potentially their final play.
Coming out of the timeout, the ball was in the hands of Brooks, who drove the lane and was looking to dish to
Josh Mitchell inside for a high-percentage two-point shot, but on his drive, Brooks was fouled. That foul was the Rangers' eighth of the half and sent Brooks to the line for 1-and-1.
As noted earlier, Brooks was money from the line and made both free throws, giving Tech the lead and ultimately the win seconds later.
The win also was a milestone one in the coaching career of head coach
Mark Downey as it was his 300
th. Nearly half of those have come at Tech as he has 134 wins as the head Wonder Boy.
