ADA, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech men's basketball team ran into a long-range buzzsaw on the road at East Central on Thursday night as the Tigers connected on 14 three-points for the game en route to a 77-57 win against Tech.
The long-distance attack by the Tigers started early as four of their first five made field goals were three-pointers. Despite that smoldering start, the Tigers were not running away with game. In fact, the fourth of those early three's managed to simply tie the score at 14-all with 12:47 left in the first half.
Remarkably, during that time, neither team held a lead larger than three points. Additionally, the score was tied on four occasions while the lead also changed hands once.
With just under 10 minutes left in the first half and Tech holding a slim 18-16 lead, the Tigers began an 8-0 run over the next minute and a half to take their largest lead to that point of the game, six points, 24-18.
The Wonder Boys were able to get within four points on a couple of occasions, but with 3:30 to go before halftime, the Tigers heated up again offensively as they rattled off a 13-2 run to close the half and take a 15-point lead into the break. In those final three minutes, ECU hit a trio of three's to give them eight for the half.
In the second half, the Wonder Boys battled hard and with just over five minutes to go in regulation, had pulled as close as seven points of the lead, 60-53. About two minutes prior, the Wonder Boys were trailing by 14, but their subsequent 7-0 spurt was sparked by a three by
Braden Tanner and followed by paint points by
Aiden Underdown and
Carlos Ramsey Jr.
Unfortunately, after a called timeout, ECU answered back with a 6-0 burst of their own to go back up by double digits. That scoring run carried on the remainder of the game and ultimately was a 17-4 run over the final 4:45. A major contributing factor to that run was again the three-point shot as ECU made three.
For the Wonder Boys, they were led in scoring by
Cassius Brooks and his 15 points. Next was Ramsey Jr. with 13 off the bench.
Seybian Sims added eight points and eight rebounds.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for another road game on Saturday afternoon as they take on Southeastern Oklahoma. Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m.
