MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas Men's Basketball team served the Northwestern State rangers their second loss on consecutive days inside the W.T. Watson Center tonight following a 74-63 Mulerider win. Following a week full of wins, SAU improves to 12-3 in GAC action while the Rangers fall to 5-10.
Southern Arkansas topped the Rangers with a 40% shooting clip and 41.7% clip from three. The Riders turned the ball over 13 times and forced 17 to record 16 points on turnovers. SAU held the lead for the entire matchup on Saturday that included a 15 point largest lead.
Carel Ray Jr. recorded a career-high 22 points as a Mulerider. The single other time he scored 20 or more points was in January against Northwestern in Alva. The sophomore made three treys and recorded a shooting clip of 80%, his best of the season. He recorded eight rebounds alongside junior Gregory Hammond Jr. and senior LaTreavin Black. Black dipped into double digits with 11 points and senior Blake Rogers posted 14 with a team-leading four made threes.
Gregory Hammond Jr. began the game with a three during the Mulerider's first possession in the Saturday evening matchup. The Rangers responded with a three of their own, but the Muleriders wouldn't let NWOSU steal their spotlight and followed with yet another three, this time from Rogers. The first minute and a half seemed to set the stage for the three point show the Muleriders were about to put on. Southern Arkansas took an early lead as they notched their third three in three minutes to claim a six-point lead. The Rangers worked to claim the lead and came as close as two points at 12:44. The Muleriders responded to the pressure with a 10-5 run that included two more threes to improve their lead to seven points. The Ranger offense worked hard, cutting the Rider lead to four points, but the Mulerider offense worked harder as CJ Ray hit back-to-back threes to help stave off the creeping Rangers. The Muleriders held a 14-point lead going into the half that was topped off with a 10-2 run in the final two and a half minutes that included Rogers' third three, two layups from Ray and three made free throws from Carraway.
CJ Ray scored 16 points in the first half alone, his most in a single period this season, while the team scored 44 points in the first half, a figure they have tied or topped only three other instances this season. The team made a dominant eight threes at a 57.1% shooting clip. And topped the Rangers' 26.9% first half shooting clips with their own of 48.5%.
The Rangers started the second half with vengeance, going on a 6-0 run and not allowing a single Mulerider point for three minutes. To preserve their lead, the Muleriders kicked it into gear and responded with their own run of seven unanswered points to not only regain their 14-point lead, but also build on it. Once again, the Rangers used a run to apply pressure to the Muleriders, this time tying SAU's 7-0 run and cut their deficit to eight points. With the teams continuing to play back and forth, a three from Hammond would snag a double-digit lead once again. The Mulerider three would serve as the last basket before the teams matched efforts to both score 18 points in the final seven minutes that would allow the Muleriders to cling to their 11 point lead.
The Muleriders will resume play next Thursday against Southeastern Oklahoma in Durant.
