MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Redshirt junior guard CJ Elkins led four Muleriders in double-figure scoring with a season-high 23 points and freshman forward DeVante Brooks logged the fifth double-double of his career as the Muleriders outlasted Southwestern Oklahoma 85-80 in a Great American Conference affair that saw 15 lead changes and eight ties on Thursday night inside the W.T. Watson Center.
 
With just over three minutes to play in the first half, the game was tied at 34 points apiece, before Brooks bottomed a pair of free throw attempts and scored on a fastbreak bucket to put SAU up 38-34 with 1:40 to go before intermission. After SWOSU converted one of two attempts at the free throw line, the Muleriders answered back courtesy of a trifecta by Aaron Lucas to increase their lead to six at 41-35 with 1:06 to play.
 
After a pair of free throws by SWOSU's Charles Beauregard with 14 seconds to go before the halftime break, Elkins hit a deep three just before the halftime horn to push SAU's lead at the break to eight points, 45-37.
 
Southern Arkansas increased their lead to as much as 13 points in the opening ten minutes of the second half and on four separate occasions the Bulldogs would maneuver their deficit back down to four points.

But in the final thirty seconds, while holding onto a four-point lead at 79-75, the Muleriders hit all six of their free throw attempts to put the game on ice.
 
The 23-point scoring output by Elkins marked the fifth 20-plus point performance of the season. He finished with three rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals, while making three of four three-pointers and ten of his sixteen shots from the charity stripe. For Brooks, his rebounding effort of 11 boards was the eighth time this season the rookie grabbed ten or more rebounds and he finished with a career-high four blocks to go along with two assists and two steals in a team-high 33 minutes of action.
 
Draylan Perkins chipped in with a dozen points, two assists and a steal and Gabe Gilliam added ten points.
 
As a team, the Muleriders attempted a season-high 46 free throws and made a season-high 28. Southwestern Oklahoma outscored SAU inside (36-28), but the Muleriders edged the Bulldogs in points off turnovers (21-17) and bench points (30-22). Southern Arkansas finished with a 51.0% success rate from the floor in a season-low 49 shot attempts.
 
The win evens SAU's conference slate at 8-8 with six games remaining in the regular season. The Muleriders are currently in a three-way tie for fifth-place with Arkansas Tech and Arkansas-Monticello and just one game up on Henderson State and Ouachita who each sit tied for eighth at 7-9. Southern Arkansas has all four aforementioned opponents remaining on the schedule.
 
The Muleriders are back in action on Saturday, February 10, for a pivotal clash with Northwestern Oklahoma State, who enters with an 11-5 league record and in second place in the standings. Tip-off from inside the W.T. Watson Center is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Live links for all of the action are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.