WEATHERFORD, Okla. – SWOSU Men's Basketball collected its third win of the week following a 96-87 victory over Harding on Saturday.

Entering the week, the Bulldogs had yet to string together consecutive conference victories this season. That changed quickly though, as SWOSU earned wins over Northwestern on Monday, Arkansas Tech on Thursday, and now Harding this afternoon to wrap up the busy week. 

Ben Smith made it back-to-back games a Bulldog scored a career high in points. He poured in 28 this afternoon on an efficient 12-for-20 (60%) from the field, two days after Chris Braggs, Jr. had 30 against Tech.

Braggs had himself another solid game against the Bisons. He added 21 points with 19 of those coming in the second half. He averaged 23.0 points this week – 10 points greater than his season average.

Kamden Gipson was right behind Braggs with 20 today. It's his fourth game this season getting to the 20-point mark, and the first time to do so in the new year.

SWOSU had control of the game for much of the duration. The Bulldogs opened up leads of 11 points in both halves, but credit to Harding for not going away. The Bisons cut the first half deficit to four points by halftime, and were within five with under five to play in the game.

The Dawgs played too well on both sides of the floor to concede the lead though. 96 points represents the highest scoring total SWOSU has had while playing a conference opponent.

SWOSU shot nearly 45% from the field overall and nearly 50% in the second half. On defense, they forced Harding into 17 turnovers while committing just eight themselves.

At the foul line, after missing 19 free throws on Thursday, SWOSU finished a solid 24-for-31 (77%) to give them a boost.

The win moves SWOSU to 10-9 and 6-7 in the GAC heading into road games with Southern Arkansas and Arkansas-Monticello next week in the typical Thursday/Saturday slate.