Muleriders squeak out 72-70 win at Ouachita Baptist

ARKADELPHIA - In a game that was back-and-forth the whole contest, it was Southern Arkansas who squeaked out a 72-70 victory over Ouachita Baptist on Saturday evening.

Fouls played a major role in the game as both teams ended up in the bonus early and often. There were 47 fouls called in the game, Ouachita (12-15, 10-12 GAC) was called for 26 of them. With the loss to Southern Arkansas (15-13, 11-11 GAC) the Tigers fall to the eighth seed in the upcoming Great American Conference.

Ouachita won almost every statistical battle against the Muleriders on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers held the advantage with points in the paint, second chance points, fast break points, bench points and even field goal percentage. Southern Arkansas won two key important statistics though as they committed less fouls and out rebounded the Tigers by six.

The two squads went stridefor-stride with one another as neither side wanted to yield an inch. Southern Arkansas pulled ahead by five points after a pair of free throws were made by KJ Collins.

Ouachita quickly responded though as the Tigers went on a 13-2 run to take a six-point advantage with 5:48 to go in the opening half.

At the 1:55 mark of the first half CJ Elkins hit a pair of free throws to give Southern Arkansas the lead back. The free throws capped a 10-3 run by the Muleriders.

With seven seconds to go in the half Trey Harris laid in an easy bucket that gave Ouachita a 36-33 advantage. It appeared that this would be the halftime score, but CJ Elkins sprinted up the floor sank a last second three-point attempt to tie the game up.

The second half was a backand-forth battle between the two teams as neither side led by more than 4 points in the half. The game was ultimately decided by fouls and being able to get to the free throw line.

Southern Arkansas appeared to be the beneficiary on a few calls as they made 21-of-27 free throw attempts in the contest. Much to the chagrin of the crowd the Muleriders were not called for a foul in the final 8:37 of play.

The Tigers still had a chance to win though late in the game. Down 71-67 with less than 15 seconds to go in the game Mahlon Martin came up with another clutch three-pointer to pull the Tigers within a point.

Elkins hit one-of-two free throws to make it a 72-70 advantage for Southern Arkansas. Martin received the inbounds pass and raced up the floor to launch a last second half-court shot. The shot was off the mark and gave the Muleriders the victory.

A quartet of Tiger players finished in double figures. Wesley Franklin finished with a team high 12 points, Harris ended the night with 11 points, Martin and Kendarious Smith each had 10 points in the contest.

Jontavis Willis (Strong, Ark.) led the seniors with 7 points, Jordan Corbitt added 6 points and Aitor Lopez-Breton finished with 4 points.

Central Arkansas 74, Abilene Christian 72.

ABILENE, Texas (AP) — Thatch Unruh collared the rebound of a missed shot and put up a jumper at the buzzer and Central Arkansas slipped past Abilene Christian 74-72 on Saturday.

Abilene Christian's Jaren Lewis missed a chance to break a 72-72 with 14 seconds remaining in the game, and Central Arkansas' Hayden Koval grabbed the rebound. Leading scorer Jordan Howard missed a 3-pointer with three seconds left, but Unruh tracked down the carom and put up the winner as time expired.

Unruh finished with six points and five boards while Howard poured in 29 points on 11 of 19 shooting and five 3-pointers. Mathieu Kamba added 18 points and Koval 16 with seven rebounds for Central Arkansas (14-15, 8-8 Southland).

Jalone Friday scored 15 before fouling out to lead Abilene Christian (15-14, 7-9), while Lewis and Jaylen Franklin scored 14 each.

Appalachian State 69, Little Rock 67.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Justin Forrest and Ronshad Shabazz each scored 18 points and Tyrell Johnson made a critical shot block and Appalachian State turned back Little Rock 69-67 Saturday night.

Nursing a 65-62 lead with 18 seconds left in the game, Johnson blocked Little Rock's K.J. Gilmore on a drive to the basket, and Craig Hinton grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Hinton sank both for Appalachian State (13-17, 8-9 Sun Belt), making it a two possession game.

Little Rock's leading scorer Jaizec Lottie made two baskets in the last nine seconds, but it wasn't enough. Shabazz answered the first bucket with a pair of free throws and Lottie hit from 3 as time ran out. Lottie tied his career high 17 points for the Trojans (6-23, 3-13).

Little Rock held a slight edge on the boards, but Appalachian State pulled down 20 of its 26 rebounds off the defensive glass.

Shabazz made four of Appalachian State's 13 3-pointers. The Mountaineers are in a crowd of six teams lurking within a game of each other for fourth and fifth place in the Sun Belt.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff 75, Grambling State 66.

GRAMBLING, La. (AP) — Travon Harper had 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting and ArkansasPine Bluff ended Grambling State's 11-game winning streak 75-66 on Saturday night.

Terrance Banyard added 12 points and Martaveous Mcknight had 11 points and eight boards for the Golden Lions (11-19, 11-5 Southwestern Athletic Conference), who split the season series with the conference-leading Tigers (15-13, 11-4) and moved alone into second place.

The Lions pulled away with a 10-1 run to lead 54-41 with nine minutes to go and mostly kept the lead in double digits until a late run by the Tigers closed the deficit to 68-64. The Lions made 7 of 12 free throws in the final 1:11 to hold on.

Pine Bluff opened the game on a 13-2 run and took a 34-33 lead into the break.

Nigel Ribeiro led Grambling with 17 points. Shirmane Thomas added 12 points and Ivy Smith, Jr. scored 11.