Defense keys Lady Bisons’ victory at Ouachita Baptist
ARKADELPHIA — Harding’s women’s basketball team forced 27 Ouachita Baptist turnovers and limited the Tigers to 33 percent shooting in a 75-41 victory in Great American Conference play Thursday at Bill Vining Arena.
Harding (13-13, 9-9) now sits alone in fourth place. The Lady Bisons have won seven straight against Ouachita (1212, 8-10) and five of their last six meetings in Arkadelphia.
Kellie Lampo, a 6-0 freshman from Jessieville, led Harding with 16 points on 6 of 9 shooting. Falan Miller, a senior from Central Arkansas Christian in North Little Rock, added 14 points. Freshman Carissa Caples, of Rose Bud, had 13.
After falling behind in the first quarter 17-7, the Lady Tigers stormed back in the second quarter to make it a 35-27 game. Ouachita shot 69.2 percent from the field in the second quarter. The second half was a different story though as the team could not buy a bucket.
Harding capitalized to outscore Ouachita 25-3 off of turnovers and limited the Lady Tigers to only 14 points in the second half. Ouachita’s only points in the fourth quarter came on two free throws. The Lady Tigers were 0 of 10 from the field in the period.
Harding shot 48 percent, 27 of 56, and made 7 of 13 3-pointers, 54 percent. The Lady Bisons also shot a season-best
14 of 16, 88 percent, at the freethrow line.
The 34-point margin of victory was Harding’s largest against Ouachita in the 33 games played in the series in Arkadelphia.
Chasidee Owens, of Springdale, scored in double-figures for the fifth consecutive game with 10 points, as well as eight rebounds. Lake Hamilton graduate Kori Bullard, a 6-0 senior, collected four blocks on the night.
The Lady Tigers will look to break out of their slump today at 2 p.m. on the road against Arkansas-Monticello
(7-16, 3-15). Harding is at home at 5:30 p.m. against Southern Arkansas (8-16, 7-11).
Men
The Ouachita Baptist men’s basketball team used a
53-point second half to hold off a Harding team that hit
14 3-pointers, 91-67, Thursday night at Bill Vining Arena.
“Our guys really shot the ball well in the second half,” Ouachita head men’s basketball coach Dennis Nutt said. “We hadn’t had much fun recently. We’ve been grinding through two- and one-possession games.”
The Tigers (10-13, 8-10) shot 62.1 percent from the floor and 56.3 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. It was just the second time all season Ouachita surpassed 90 points and it was the first time in a non-overtime game.
The first half was close between the two squads as Ouachita went into halftime up 38-36. The Tigers shot 48.3 percent from the field, while limiting Harding to 37 percent shooting, but the Bisons (4-19,
4-14) kept it close with nine first-half treys.
Harding made just 11 shots in the entire second half. With
15:43 left in the game, Adam Horn hit a layup to pull Harding within 47-46.
Over the next four minutes, Ouachita outscored Harding
17-3 with its last nine points of the run coming on a 3-pointer from Jontavis Willis and two
3-pointers from Jordan Corbitt. The last gave Ouachita a
64-49 lead with 11:36 left. The Tigers also fed freshman forward Matt Stanley, of Cabot, in the post. He finished a rebound shy of collecting his first career double-double. He finished with 17 points for a third consecutive game in which he came off of the bench to score in double figures.
Harding trimmed the lead back under 10 points with 8:32 left as Brandon Reeves made a layup to cut the gap to 6758. Ouachita answered with an 8-0 run, hitting a pair of threes, and pulled away.
Harding finished 14 of
33, 42.4 percent, from long range. Zac Ward made four threes and led Harding with 19 points. Filip Medjo made three
3-pointers and had 11 points. For the 15th game this season, Mahlon Martin, a junior guard out of Episcopal Collegiate in Little Rock, scored in double figures as he ended the game with 15 points. Freshman Kendarious Smith, out of Canton, Miss., finished the night with 14 points for his
10th game of the season with double-figure scoring. Senior guard Jordan Corbitt, of Frisco, Texas, finished the game a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range as he collected 12-points in the contest.
The Tigers outrebounded the Bisons 41-23, scored
38-points inside the paint, had 21 points off of turnovers, scored 17 second chance points and had 18 fast break points.
Ouachita travels to Arkansas-Monticello (15-9, 10-8) today with tip-off scheduled for
4 p.m. Harding remains alive for a GAC Tournament spot and returns to the RhodesReaves Field House today to take on Southern Arkansas
(13-11, 9-9) at 7:30 p.m.