MONTICELLO, Ark. – The SWOSU men's basketball team lost a hard-fought road game in Monticello. They were taken down 60-57, in a game of two completely different halves.
 
SWOSU falls to 10-11 on the year and 6-9 in the GAC. Their next contest will be at home on Thursday night against the Reddies of Henderson State at 7:30 pm.
 
The first half was all SWOSU. They shot over 57% from the field and 43% from three. They held Arkansas-Monticello to 26 points as well. They were playing stingy defense, forcing 11 first half turnovers from the Boll Weevils. Everything was going in favor of the Bulldogs. They walked into the locker room up 16 points with all the momentum.
 
Then came the second half. UAM slowly worked into the SWOSU lead, getting good shots while playing solid defense. SWOSU's lead was cut to eight by the halfway point in the half. This is where UAM went on a 11-0, holding SWOSU scoreless for over seven minutes of game time. After a Ben Smith jumper with 11:10 left, the Bulldogs only managed four more points for the rest of the game.
 
SWOSU went cold in the closing stretches of the game. After a fiery shooting start, they shot just 6-28 in the second half and went 1-11 from three. Only shooting two free throws in the later half hurt them. Their big first half lead was aided by 14 free throw attempts in the first 20 minutes.
 
Ben Smith scored 17 points and grabbed four boards to lead the Bulldogs. MJ Warrior, Jr. had 13 points. Kamden Gipson scored seven points to go along with six rebounds.
 
SWOSU ended the game shooting 39.3% and 28% from three. UAM was an even 50% from the field and shot 41.2% from three.