Box Score (html)
WEATHERFORD, Okla. – After trailing by as many as 21 points in the first half, the SWOSU Men's Basketball team battled back to within three in the final minutes before dropping an 82-73 contest to Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday evening at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
UAM struck early and led the game wire-to-wire, taking a 28-10 lead just over halfway through the first half. The Boll Weevils would push their lead to 42-21 with 3:11 to play in the first half before the Bulldogs used a 7-0 run to make it a 44-28 game at halftime.
SWOSU continued to claw in the second half, finally getting within 10 points at the 9:51 mark on a layup by
Charles Beauregard, Jr. that made it 61-53. That would be as close as the Dawgs would get until the final five minutes, when a
Malik Smith lay-up made the score 67-60 and a 5-0 spurt that included a three from
Daniel Eibel and basket inside by
Justin King cut it to five at 70-65.
The biggest basket of the game for SWOSU came by senior guard
Devin Pugh, who rose up for a three-pointer and connected while also being fouled. Pugh cashed in the four-point play and got SWOSU within three at 72-69 with 2:42 to play. That would be as close as the Bulldogs could get, however, as UAM answered with a three-pointer on the next possession before pushing their lead back out to nine points in the final minutes thanks to free throws.
Pugh led the way for the Bulldogs with 16 points, five rebounds and four steals as he remained active all night at both ends of the floor.
Justin King totaled 13 points in 20 minutes of action before fouling out without grabbing a rebound while Beauregard also struggled with foul trouble before fouling out with eight points in just 18 minutes of play.
Daniel Eibel had 10 points off the bench, helping SWOSU to outscore the bench of UAM 24-5 while
Collin Jennings had a balanced stat line with eight points, eight rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block in 32 minutes.
"Tonight was a tale of two halves, but I'm proud of the way our guys kept fighting and battled back after we got down," SWOSU Interim Head Coach
Kris Johnson said. "Give credit to Monticello, they hit big shots down the stretch after we got close and made the plays to turnaround. We have a quick turnaround for Southern Arkansas so we've got to get ready to play again on Saturday."
The setback drops the Bulldogs to 3-8 on the year and 1-4 in Great American Conference play heading into another league game on Saturday afternoon against Southern Arkansas. Tipoff for that contest is set for 3:00 pm inside the Pioneer Cellular Event Center in Weatherford.
