WONDER BOYS NEED OVERTIME TO EARN HOME WIN OVER HARDING, MOVE INTO SECOND PLACE TIE IN GSC WEST DIVISION STANDINGS

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – Arkansas Tech Men’s Basketball needed five extra minutes to achieve something its hadn’t done in nearly 24 years here Thursday at Tucker Coliseum as the Wonder Boys collected an 87-82 win in overtime over Gulf South Conference West Division leader, Harding.

With the win, Tech, who earned a 64-60 win over Harding in Searcy on Jan. 24, collects its first season sweep of the Bisons since the 1993-94 season. That season, Tech earned an 81-60 win in Russellville and then posted an 89-80 win in Searcy. In addition to sweeping the Bisons in a season series, Tech also collected its first victory over Harding in Russellville since posting a 97-57 win in 1997, a span of seven games.

“I am so proud of our players tonight, for being able to gut this win out against the top team in our conference,” Wonder Boys Head Coach Mark Downey said. “We haven’t swept a season series from them in a long time, so it feels good to finally be able to do that and to do it in front of our home crowd makes it even better.”

The Wonder Boys, who entered the game in a three-way tie for third place in the West Division standings, came out of the game sitting in a four-way tie for second place with a 7-4 mark and is now one game out of the first place leader, Harding. If the two teams should tie at the end of the season, Tech owns a tiebreaker over the Bison by virtue of its two victories.

“We are back in control of our own destiny now and that’s what you want as the season winds down,” the second-year Tech coach said. “Our team now needs to go out and do it on Saturday and then do it again next Thursday.”

The Wonder Boys (16-8 overall on the season) forced overtime when junior forward Troy Marcus (Bronx, NY) scored on a lay-up with three seconds remaining in regulation and then watched as Matt Hall, the reigning GSC West Division Player of the Week and two-time West Division Player of the Year, missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.

In overtime, Tech scored eight of the first 10 points to pull out to an 85-79 lead following a lay-up by junior guard Chad Henderson (Memphis, Tenn.). The Bisons, who fell to 14-10 overall and 8-3 in the GSC, came back used a free throw by Steven Barnett and a lay-up by Kevin Brown to pull within 85-82 with 1:31 remaining. Following Brown’s lay-up, Tech missed two shots, but freshman guard Laithe Massey (Heber Springs, Ark.) crashed the glass to collect offensive boards after each of those missed shots to keep Tech in possession of the ball.

After sophomore guard Brandon Friedel (Victoria, Texas) drilled two free throws with 21 seconds remaining to give Tech an 87-82 lead, Massey sealed Tech’s win by stepping in and drawing a charge on Hall with six seconds left in the game.

“Laithe gutted it out and stepped big tonight when we needed him too,” the second-year Tech coach said. “He handled the ball well and did not make many mistakes after Renard got in foul trouble.”

It appeared that midway through the second half that overtime wouldn’t be needed as Harding turned a 33-32 halftime lead into a 54-48 lead with 12:51 left in regulation. Tech, though, responded as it used a 7-4 run capped by a three-pointer from Friedel to pull within 58-55 with 10:25 left in the game.

Harding, though, wouldn’t go away as they expanded its lead to 65-56 with 7:58 left following a 7-1 run. After that run, Tech’s defense stepped up as it held the Bisons without a field goal over the next five minutes and the Wonder Boys outscored Harding, 21-11 to send the game into overtime.

Henderson led Tech with a career-high 24 points, while junior guard Jamar Flowers (White Castle, La.) added 16 points despite shooting 5-of-16 from the field and Friedel chipped in with 10 points in the win.

Tech’s defense held Hall, who entered the game as the GSC’s leading scorer at 20.9 points per game, to six points and three rebounds in 42 minutes of action.

“Jamar and Irvin (Humphrey) did a great job of guarding Hall,” Downey added. “They got after it on defense and made sure he wasn’t going to beat us.”

One area Downey was disappointed in was his team’s rebounding as the Wonder Boys were outrebounded by 13 (44 to 31) on the night.

“We didn’t rebound the ball well and that is something we’ve been doing well in all season,” he added.

With Hall’s struggles on offense, the Bisons were led by Trent Morgan’s 21 points, while Barnett added 17 points, but committed 12 of Harding’s game-high 30 turnovers. Brown scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds off the bench.

For the game, Tech shot 47 percent from the field and 50 percent (7-for-14) from the 3-point line, while Harding shot 45 percent from the floor and 46 percent from downtown. In addition, both teams combined to shoot 72 free throws as a combined 50 fouls were called in the contest. Despite turning the ball over 30 times, Harding finished the game with a 27-25 edge in points off turnovers as Tech had 19 turnovers in the win.

Tech will have little time to savor Thursday’s win as they return to action on Saturday when they travel to Monticello, Ark., to face the Boll Weevils in a 4 p.m. match-up at Steelman Fieldhouse on the UAM campus. UAM, who is one game behind Tech in the standings with a 6-5 record, collected a 67-64 win over the Wonder Boys in Russellville on Jan. 26.

          Harding Box Score        

-- Tech Athletics --