Setting the Stage
The SWOSU men's basketball team heads to Searcy, Ark., in search of a much-needed road victory against Harding. The Bulldogs have lost their grip on first place in the conference standings and need a victory over the Bisons to avoid their first three-game losing skid of the season.
In order to get back on track, SWOSU will have to win at Rhodes Field House, a place that the Bulldogs have not earned a win at since joining the Great American Conference three seasons ago. Harding enters the game on a skid of their own, having lost three of their last four games, and they enter the game with a 10-9 record, which includes a 7-6 mark in league play.
The Bulldogs are coming off their first road loss of the season, an 85-77 setback at Arkansas Tech on Thursday night. The loss dropped the Bulldogs one-half game behind East Central for the top spot in the GAC standings with a 12-7 (9-4 GAC) record.
The Coaches
Bob Battisti is the 14th head men's basketball coach in SWOSU history and in his first season on the Bulldogs sidelines. He most recently spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma Christian University where he helped the program its first postseason basketball title in 30 years. Prior to his stint at OCU, Battisti spent 25 years at Northwestern Oklahoma State, coaching the men's basketball team for 21 seasons before taking over as the school's athletic director for four years. In more than 24 years as a head coach, Battisti has a career record of 421-303.
Jeff Morgan enters his 21st season as the Bisons' head coach in 2013-14. He has a career record of 366-232 and a 349-222 mark at Harding. Morgan's teams have reached the 1996 NAIA National Tournament and qualified for the NCAA Division II National Tournaments in 2003, 2008, 2011 and 2013. He has a record of 359-232 at Harding and he is 6-5 in his career against SWOSU.
Last Time Out
An 18-4 run to start the second half provided Arkansas Tech with enough of a cushion to hang on and defeat SWOSU 85-77 on Thursday night at Tucker Coliseum. The loss is the first true road loss of the season for the Bulldogs, who were 7-0 in such games before Thursday.
Both teams played at a high level, but Arkansas Tech shot the ball very well, knocking down 25-of-50 (50.0%) field goals and eight three pointers in the game. A Bobby Hatchett 3-pointer with five seconds remaining in the opening half gave the Wonder Boys a 44-43 lead at the break that they would expand upon early in the second half.
That lead quickly bloomed to 62-47 after an 18-4 run that spanned the first 4:17 of the second half and left SWOSU fighting an uphill battle to finish out the game. The Bulldogs got within four at 81-77 on a
Rod Camphor three in the final minute, but ATU hit all four of their free throw attempts in the final 40 seconds to put the game away.
Camphor led the Bulldogs with 24 points and seven rebounds while playing 36 minutes while
Gary Inglett battled foul trouble in the second half but still finished with 17 points and five rebounds before fouling out.
Trent Washington had 13 points and
Kenyan Borders scored 10 and both players dished out a team-high five assists.
SWOSU hit 24-of-55 (43.6%) field goal attempts and knocked down 13 3-pointers, with all of them coming from their top four scorers. All five starters played at least 26 minutes for the Bulldogs, whose bench was outscored 24-6 by ATU's.
Last Time vs. Harding (January 2, 2014)
The SWOSU men's basketball team allowed a season-high 13 three-point field goals to Harding on Thursday and suffered an 89-65 defeat, their first in Great American Conference action this season.
Six players from Harding connected from long range, including Tony Cochran who finished 5-of-5 from three and scored 19 points. Hayden Johnson scored a game-high 26 for the Bisons and Jacob Gibson chipped in 14 in the effort.
Rod Camphor led the way for SWOSU, scoring 20 points off 5-of-10 shooting from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 mark from the stripe.
Michael Bradley was the only other Bulldog to reach double digits as he finished with 12 points.
Gary Inglett was held to a season-low nine points, marking the first time this season he didn't reach double figures.
Checking the Standings
SWOSU's loss to Arkansas Tech on Thursday – the teams third in the past four games – dropped the Bulldogs from the top spot in the conference standings for the first time in the last month. At 9-4, SWOSU is now one-half game behind East Central, who is leading the conference with a 10-4 record. Arkansas Tech also has just four conference losses and they are directly behind SWOSU at 8-4. Harding is currently tied for fifth in the standings with Southern Nazarene as both teams sport 7-6 league marks.
Scouting the Opponent
Harding has dropped three of their last four games, including a 65-58 loss to Northwestern Oklahoma State on Thursday, and fallen to 10-9 on the year with a 7-6 mark in conference play. The Bisons are 6-2 this season at their home venue, Rhodes Field House, a place that SWOSU has not won at since joining the Great American Conference.
Just eight players remain on the Bisons roster, including three players who are averaging double digit points per game. Hayden Johnson is the Bisons leading scorer, putting up 15.8 points per game and he has scored more than 20 points in a game five times this season, including 26 points in the Bisons 89-65 win over SWOSU back in January. Jacob Gibson has been the high scorer for Harding in four straight games and five of their last six, upping his scoring average to 15.1 points per game. Gibson has scored 10 or more points in seven straight games and he's had two different games this season of scoring 35 or more points.
Harding is scoring an average of 75.9 points per game, ranking fourth in the GAC while allowing 73.3 points per contest to their opponents. The Bisons are the second-best free throw shooting team in the conference, connecting on 71.7% (312-of-435) of their attempts from the line this season. One difficulty for Harding has been defensively where they are allowing opponents to shoot 45.3% from the field and 36.4% from 3-point range, both marks ranking them at the bottom of the GAC.
Quick Hits
- SWOSU tied a season-low with six turnovers against Arkansas Tech, the second time in the past three games the Bulldogs turned the ball over just six times
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Gary Inglett has played 30 or more minutes in 17-of-19 games this season and he ranks seventh in the conference by playing an average of 34.2 minutes per game
- By knocking down 13-of-25 3-pointers against ATU, SWOSU reached their second-best 3-point shooting night of the season
- SWOSU leads the GAC with an average of 4.3 blocked shots per game.
Michael Bradley leads the Dawgs and ranks fourth in the conference with 34 blocked shots (1.8/game)
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Rod Camphor reached the 20-point mark against ATU for the 7th time this season, the fourth-most 20-point performances from players in the GAC
Looking Ahead
After the weekend on the road, SWOSU returns to the Pioneer Cellular Event Center for a crucial weekend of GAC play, facing in-state rivals East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma State.
