JOPLIN, Mo. – The Arkansas Tech men's basketball team opened their regular season on Friday night on the road at Missouri Southern as part of the GAC/MIAA Crossover Challenge. After getting out to an early lead, the Wonder Boys would be upended by Missouri Southern as the Lions had a pair of sizable runs late in the game to beat Tech 80-70.
Both of those runs started either with the game tied or Missouri Southern up by a possession and each ended with the Lions having a double-digit lead. The first run started at the 9:30 mark of the second half and broke a 52-all tie. Over the next 1:50 of action, the Lions scored 13-unanswered points and led 65-52 with 7:40 on the clock.
The Wonder Boys would begin to work themselves back into the game and trailing by 13 with just over six and a half minutes left in the second half, Tech went on an 11-0 run to pull within two points, 67-65, with 4:31 to go. That run was sparked by an old-fashioned three-point play from
Donyae May and was capped by a three-pointer from
Sam Bradford.
May and Bradford would be the only two players in double figures. Bradford led the way with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the floor. May had 14 points and was 3-of-8 from three-point range.
That would be as close as the Wonder Boys would get to the Lions as they held Tech off over the final four and a half minutes of play. Missouri Southern went on to beat Tech by 10 points, 80-70, thanks to a 7-0 run over the last two minutes.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for a quick turnaround as they will play Newman tomorrow afternoon (Saturday, November 15). Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
