RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech men's basketball team suffered a heart-breaking 71-66 loss at home against Northwestern Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon.
The entirety of the game was tightly played with six tie scores and 18 total lead changes. All of the tie scores occurred in the first half while seven lead changes took place in the second half. At the break, Tech held a slim one-point lead, 31-30. They did so after closing out the final three minutes of the half on a 6-0 run.
Early action in the second half was back-and-forth as the lead changed hands six times over the first six minutes. By the 11:59 mark, the Wonder Boys had gone up by five, 46-41, but less than a minute later, NWOSU was suddenly up by four as they ripped off a 9-0 burst, converting an old-fashioned three-point play and then capitalizing a pair of Tech turnovers into three-point makes on the other end.
The run extended to 11-0 at the 10:43 mark. About a minute after that, the Wonder Boys were able to stop the run on a dunk by
Albright Obode. Northwestern continued their push, however, and went up by as much as eight points, 56-48, at 8:14 mark.
The Wonder Boys were able to pull within two of the lead about a minute later thanks to a personal 6-0 run by
Carlos Ramsey Jr. In that run, Ramsey Jr. was 4-of-4 from the charity stripe and had a layup. The Rangers were able to stem the tide in that moment and remained out in front.
Trailing by seven, 64-57, with 3:37 left in the second half, the Wonder Boys fought back into the game and were within a point of the lead with 24 seconds left. The remainder of the game was chaotic to say the least.
With right at 22 seconds left and NWOSU leading by a point, a foul was called on Tech. Officially it was the seventh team foul of the second half and NWOSU should have been awarded a one-and-one free throw opportunity, but the officials on the court did not confirm the foul count and preceded to have NWOSU in-bound from the far sideline.
On that in-bounds play, the Wonder Boys forced a steal in the backcourt and
Seybian Sims went in for a dunk that, at the moment, gave Tech a one-point lead, 66-65, now with 14 seconds showing on the clock.
After the dunk, a timeout was called by Tech, their last of the game, to set up their defense. During the timeout, the omitted one-and-one opportunity for NWOSU was discovered and coming out of the timeout, the Rangers were allowed the free throw attempts as the omission was a correctable error.
At the free throw line, NWOSU made both of the shots to now put them up in the game, 67-66, and since it would have been their ball following the Sims dunk, the Rangers had the ball back. The Wonder Boys were forced to foul and the Rangers made both of the foul shots to extend the lead to three, 69-66.
Tech would have one more shot at a tying three-pointer, but it drew iron and went out of bounds giving NWOSU possession with three seconds. The Rangers then executed a run out pass to the front court that led to a last-second dunk to make it a five-point margin of victory.
The Wonder Boys had three players score in double digits and were led in scoring by
Cassius Brooks with 17. Ramsey Jr. was next with 16 points followed by Sims and his 14.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare to make their final regular season trip to Oklahoma this coming week as they are at Southern Nazarene on Thursday and Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday. Tip-off against SNU on Thursday is slated for 7:30 p.m.
