ADA, Okla. – SWOSU men's basketball held their second to last game of the regular season tonight in Ada, where they lost to East Central, 87-76. The game was closer than the final score, as the Tigers extended their lead to the mid-teens in the late stages of this one.
 
SWOSU drops to 12-15 and 8-13 in conference.  GAC-leading No. 13/11 Southern Nazarene travels to Weatherford on Saturday for SWOSU's final contest in the Pioneer Cellular Event Center this season.
 
Kamden Gipson was the star of the first half for SWOSU. He came out of the gates firing and firing accurately. He started with 13 of SWOSU's first 15 points, thanks to four three pointers in as many minutes. He walked into halftime with 18 points and six first half threes. His shooting helped SWOSU shoot 47% from three in the opening half. ECU saw this and had to one-up the senior guard.
 
The Tigers opened the game 7-10 from three and scored 30 of 43 first half points off of three pointers. Seven of those threes came from just two ECU players. The hot shooting of both teams culminated a competitive game. The largest lead for either team was just eight points and there was only a four-point difference at the break.
 
SWOSU battled out of halftime to capture a 51-50 lead for their first since 15:56 in the first half. The middle of the period saw multiple ties and a couple lead changes. ECU took a 59-58 lead right before the 12-minute media timeout and after that never looked back. They went on a 29-11 run over a 10-minute span following that media timeout to keep the Dawgs far enough out of reach.
 
SWOSU was haunted by fouls in the latter half. ECU was in the bonus with 9:44 left in the game. SWOSU then fouled nine more times over the final nine minutes to have 16 total fouls over the last twenty minutes.
 
Kamden Gipson ended with 21 points with six made threes. Chris Braggs, Jr. totaled 18 points and three boards. Ben Smith almost ended with a double-double at 17 points and nine rebounds.