UAM advances to conference title game
MONTICELLO — The University of Arkansas at Monticello men’s basketball team advanced to the Great American Conference Tournament Championship after a hard-fought overtime battle against Henderson State on Friday.
The Boll Weevils outscored the Reddies 16-6 in the extra period to punch their ticket to the title game with an 80-70 win at Steelman Field House.
The Weevils are making their third appearance in the conference championship game and first since 2018, when they finished as the runners-up. The Weevils also finished runners-up at the 2017 league tournament.
UAM (15-4, 12-4 GAC) started slowly in the first half, missing its first seven shots to find itself down 9-0 to HSU (11-9, 9-8 GAC) at the first media timeout. The Weevils regrouped and began to battle back to eventually take their first lead, 26-25, on a transition three-pointer by Miles Daniels with 4:46 remaining. The two teams traded buckets the remainder of the half, and UAM went into the locker room trailing 31-30.
The second half continued to be a back-and-forth battle with nine lead changes and nine ties. With 4:30 to play, the Weevils pushed in front by four on a Dajuan Jones triple. The Reddies would close the gap to knot the score at 60 with two minutes left. UAM held the lead again in the final minute, but HSU managed to tie it again to send the game into overtime tied at 64.
The Weevils jumped in front quickly in the extra period as Jones drained a pair of threes. Jones went perfect from the field and the free throw line in overtime, scoring 11 of UAM’s 16 points to lead the Weevils to victory.
Jones led UAM with 22 points in the contest, scoring 21 in the second half and overtime. He also tallied six assists along with four rebounds.
Daniels and Lemmie Howard also finished in double digits with 17 and 16 points, respectively. Daniels added three steals to his stat line.
Denzel McDuffey fell a point shy of his sixth double-double of the season, finishing with nine points and 10 rebounds.
As a team, the Weevils used the charity stripe to clinch the win, shooting 22of-27, 81.5%, in the game.