ADA, Okla. – The Mulerider Men's Basketball team suffered a defeat on the road in Saturday afternoon's GAC matchup with East Central as the Tigers outscored Southern Arkansas (53-33) in the second half to secure the win, 92-66, inside Kerr Activities Center.
The Muleriders followed a close trail behind the Tigers in the first half as ECU marked its largest lead of the frame at 4:08 with a 13-point advantage over Southern Arkansas, 37-24. The Muleriders cut that deficit down to just six over the next four minutes of action after engineering a 9-2 run that left the score at 39-33 at the intermission.
That 9-2 run for SAU was jump-started with back-to-back buckets from
CJ Elkins and
Keeton Tennison and then followed by 5-of-6 makes from the charity stripe, four of which
KJ Collins accounted for.
The Tigers jumped back out to a double-digit lead early in the second half after a pair of 3-point buckets, a jumper, and a pair of free throw makes prompted a 15-point advantage over the Muleriders, 49-34, in just-over two minutes of action.
Southern Arkansas would struggle to keep pace with the Tigers' offense as they quickly engineered a 30-point lead at the 4:26 mark in the half to extend their lead, 81-51.
In the final four minutes of action, the Muleriders outscored the Tigers, 15-11, led by Andrew Hallaway's seven points and
Trey Davis' five points, but it wasn't enough to catch the Tiger lead which eventually resulted in a 92-66 final decision.
UP NEXT
- The Muleriders return home next week and will prepare for a 3-game GAC home slate beginning with Southwestern Oklahoma on Thursday, February 8, scheduled for a 7:30 tip-off inside the W.T. Watson Center followed by Northwestern Oklahoma on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 3 p.m. and Arkansas Tech on Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
