Box Score (html)
ADA, Okla. – Behind a 40-point scoring effort from
Charles Beauregard, Jr. – the Great American Conference's leading scorer – the SWOSU Men's Basketball team snapped a 14-game winless streak with an 83-77 victory over East Central at the Kerr Activities Center on Saturday afternoon.
Beauregard had 25 points in the first half, but the Bulldogs still faced a 45-41 deficit at the break, a mark that grew to eight early in the second half as East Central took a 54-46 lead. SWOSU took their first lead of the second half on a short jump shot from
Collin Jennings with 9:02 to play and they would relinquish the advantage just once in the final nine minutes of the game.
SWOSU has played in several close games this season and failed to execute down the stretch, but that was not an issue on Saturday. With 4:48 to play,
Jefkins Agyeman-Budu gave the Dawgs the lead for good with a lay-in that made it 73-71. Beauregard then hit two free throws and
Nick Shoemaker canned a three with 3:02 to play that made it a two-possession game. The Bulldogs continued to get stops at the defensive end and convert at the free throw line in the final minute to salt the game away.
Beauregard took the leading roll with 40 points on 15-of-24 shooting from the field while hitting all four of his free throw attempts. This is his second 40-point performance of the season, improving his league-leading scoring average to 20.8 points per game for the season. The supporting cast for SWOSU came through in a big way, with Shoemaker finishing with 15 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field while
Geoffery Hightower had eight points off the bench and
Cooper Battisti chipped in seven.
The victory improves the Bulldogs to 4-21 on the year, snapping a 14-game slide that spanned the entire calendar year while also moving to 2-17 in GAC play with three games to play. SWOSU returns to action on Monday, heading to Alva to face Northwestern Oklahoma State with tipoff set for 7:30 pm.
