Box Score (html)
WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Jerry Hurt buried a game-tying three pointer with 18 seconds remaining, but Ouachita rushed the ball up the court and got a jumper from Mahlon Martin with 2.5 seconds to defeat SWOSU 63-61 on Thursday evening at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
SWOSU led just once in the first half and trailed by as many as 13, but battled back and went to the break down 28-23 following a late lay-in by Hurt. A three-pointer by
Charles Beauregard, Jr., with 13:33 to play put SWOSU in front for the first time after halftime and the teams would go back and forth until SWOSU took the lead back with just under seven minutes to play and built their largest lead at 53-47 with 5:15 to play on a three-pointer from
Nick Shoemaker.
That lead was short-lived, however, with Ouachita scoring the next six points to tie the score at 53-all with 3:38 to play. The Tigers used second chances to extend the lead to 59-55 with 1:40 to play following a three-point play by Jontavis Willis, but threes from SWOSU's
Devin Pugh and Hurt got the score back to even with 18 seconds to play. Ouachita had one last answer on Thursday as Mahlon Martin hit a pull-up jump shot with 2.5 seconds remaining and the Tigers batted away a last-chance pass attempt from the Dawgs to secure the victory.
The sloppy contest was marred by 54 called fouls and a combined 60 free throws attempted, but the difference in the game was in rebounding. Ouachita had a modest advantage of 40-to-35 on the backboards, but the Tigers hauled in 16 offensive rebounds and converted those into 15 crucial points that allowed them to earn the conference road victory.
SWOSU got 22 points from
Jerry Hurt and 10 from
Nick Shoemaker while shooting 36.8% from the field and 43.8% from three-point range. The Bulldogs also knocked down 26-of-36 (72.2%) of their attempts from the stripe and secured seven steals – led by three from Hurt
SWOSU now sits 1-2 on the year while opening Great American Conference play at 0-1 following the defeat. The Bulldogs are back at home on Saturday to face Henderson State at 3:00 pm inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
