Box Score (html)
SEARCY, Ark. – SWOSU dropped their Great American Conference opener and remained winless at Rhodes Field House in the past four seasons as hot-shooting Harding defeated the Bulldogs 64-52 on Saturday afternoon.
After a slow start by both teams, Harding put some distance between the teams by hitting 5-of-10 three pointers in the first half as they built a 33-26 lead at the break. SWOSU tried slowing the game down and did so effectively but they were held to 33.9% (19-of-56) shooting from the field and hit just 2-of-19 (10.5%) 3-pointers in the defeat.
Harding cooled off from long range in the second half, but they began feeding the ball inside to leading-scored Andres Kavas, who finished with 17 points – 14 in the second half – on 7-of-11 to lead the Bisons. Harding shot 54.5% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range in the defeat.
Trent Washington scored 15 points, with 10 after halftime, to lead SWOSU while
Ayo Ojo added 11 in the game.
Emeche Wells scored eight points and
Mark Braden had seven but leading-scorer
Martell Collins was held to a season-low six points on just 2-of-10 shooting. The Bulldogs were outrebounded by just one by Harding but the Bisons had 18 assists on 24 made baskets while SWOSU assisted on just four of their 19 field goals.
"I thought we actually played with great energy and we really valued the ball, but we just got out-shot today," SWOSU Head Coach
Bob Battisti said following the game. "Credit Harding for that, they've always got great shooters. We are a lot better basketball team today than we were one week ago and we're going to continue to get better and that's what I'm looking forward to with this team."
SWOSU, now 2-2 on the year and 0-1 in GAC play, returns to action on Tuesday as they host Central Oklahoma at 7:30 pm in the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
