Box Score (html)
SEARCY, Ark. – Jerry Hurt scored the final seven points of the game for SWOSU, helping his team to a 71-70 victory over Harding, marking the Bulldogs first Great American Conference victory of the season and their first win at Rhodes-Reaves Field House since joining the GAC.
SWOSU was forced to play the final 5:18 without two of their top three scorers after guards
Devin Pugh and
Charles Beauregard, Jr. fouled out. That foul trouble thrust
Jerry Hurt into the leading role and allowed the junior to score seven of his game-high 22 points in the final 3:14, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 2:10 to play.
After Hurt's three-pointer made it 69-66, Harding scored to again make it a one-point game with 1:40 remaining. SWOSU's next offensive possession came up empty, but Hurt turned defense into offense with a steal he took the length of the floor for a lay-in to put SWOSU back up 71-68 with less than one minute to play. The Bulldogs held off Harding after the Bisons scored a basket with 41 seconds to play, but good defense from SWOSU on the final possession forced Harding to take a tough three-pointer that was off the mark at the buzzer.
SWOSU got a team-high 22 points from Hurt, who came off the bench for the first time this season and connected on 9-of-17 field goal attempts while also totaling three assists, two rebounds and one steal. Beauregard added 18 points in 30 minutes before fouling out while
Nick Shoemaker added eight points and four rebounds.
The Bulldogs got plenty of other big contributions off the bench, including seven points and two steals in 21 minutes for
Cooper Battisti, who hit 5-of-6 free throws and played big minutes down the stretch with his team in foul trouble.
Luke Luna stepped in and hit all three of his field goal attempts, finishing with six points, six rebounds and one blocked shot in 15 minutes of action. Their efforts helped SWOSU's bench outscore their counterparts 39-23.
"We got good complimentary play today from a lot of players coming off of the bench this game," SWOSU Head Coach
Bob Battisti said following the win. "We had a positive practice yesterday and we knew we were going to play well, but we still had to come out today and execute so I give our guys a lot of credit for that."
SWOSU snaps a six-game slide with the victory, which improves the Bulldogs record to 2-6 (1-3 GAC) on the year. Next up for the Bulldogs is a pair of non-conference contests to close out the month of December, starting on Friday against Panhandle State. Tipoff of that game has been moved up to 5:00 pm to accommodate other events on the Weatherford campus on Friday evening.
