Tigers Basketball Team Earns Victory at Home Over Arkansas Tech

Courtesy OBU Athletics Department

ARKADELPHIA, Ark.- Before Thursday night’s game, the Ouachita Tigers (7-5, 3-3 GAC) had played four of their last five games on the road, so stepping out onto their home court was a nice change of scenery. Even though they may not have expected things to go the way that they did, home court still welcomed them with open arms and they walked away with a 57-52 victory over the visiting Wonder Boys of Arkansas Tech University (7-5, 4-2 GAC) and gave themselves a boost following two straight difficult losses.

The first half of the game was ugly in every sense of the word, and not just for the Tigers. As time expired in the first period, the Tigers trailed by a score of 29-21 and the only difference in the game came from the extra shot attempts gained by Arkansas Tech on the offensive boards.

The second half was a much different story though, as the Tigers stormed back with an early run and tied the game about five minutes into the half. The two teams battled back and forth before the Tigers finally took the lead with 7:01 left in the game and never relinquished it.

Ouachita’s Austin Mitchell got hot and couldn’t be cooled off despite a number of attempts from Tech defenders. Mitchell finished with 27 points, draining nine of his 15 attempts in the game. Eight of his makes were from behind the three point arc though, giving the Tigers the boost that they needed. Noone else notched double-digit point totals for the team but an eight point, five assist performance from Nigel Ramsey, along with seven points from Michael Morris and Micah Delph helped fuel the victory.

Arkansas Tech used a number of players to run their offense through, as Will Paul finished with 13 points and Willie Kirkland and Jared Williamson both finished with 10. Charles Mells was a large part of keeping his team in the game, no pun intended, as the seven footer recorded eight points and nine rebounds in the contest.

The Tigers really overcame all odds in the game, as the Wonder Boys held a 40-33 advantage on the boards and held the Tigers to 39.2 percent from the floor. The Tiger defense was stout as well though, forcing a number of bad shots by Arkansas Tech and only allowing them to shoot 32.1 percent from the floor in the second half and 35.6 percent from the floor in the game.

Head Coach Dennis Nutt and his Tigers will try to put together a winning streak, as they travel to Harding University on Saturday to take on the Bisons. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

-Josh Fink, Sports Information Director