WONDER BOYS DROP REGULAR SEASON FINALE AT OUACHITA BAPTIST, EARNS NO. 5 SEED IN GSC TOURNAMENT

         ARKADELPHIA, Arkansas – Arkansas Tech Men’s Basketball concluded regular season play here Saturday by suffering an 85-53 loss at the hands of Ouachita Baptist in Gulf South Conference action at Vining Arena.

Despite the loss, Tech, who fell to 17-10 overall and 8-6 in the GSC, still earned just its second-ever berth in the GSC Tournament and first since 2000 as the Wonder Boys are the fifth seed from the West Division and will open the tournament on Wednesday, March 5 against Alabama-Huntsville at 5:30 p.m. at the DeSoto County Civic Center in Southaven, Miss. Tech earned its tournament berth thanks to its season sweep of Harding, who is the top seed from the West Division, despite losing 70-56 at Christian Brothers on Saturday.

“Tonight’s loss is unexplainable,” Wonder Boys Coach Mark Downey said. “We told the kids prior to the game that we needed to win the game to make the GSC Tournament, but then we go out and play like that. It feels good to make the tournament, but it would’ve felt better had we played better against OBU.”

It appeared early on that Saturday’s game would be a battle as neither team led by more than two points in the opening 12 minutes of the contest until Tech used back-to-back baskets from junior forward Troy Marcus (Bronx, NY) to turn a 12-all tie, which was the sixth of the first half, into a 16-12 lead with 5:26 remaining. After Jaranimo Marks hit two free throws with 4:49 remaining to drop Tech’s lead to 16-14, junior guard Jamar Flowers (White Castle, La.) hit a jumper to increase Tech’s lead to 18-14. Following Flowers’ basket, OBU closed the half on a 12-3 run to go into halftime with a 28-21 lead. OBU’s run was capped by back-to-back three-pointers from Marks.

“We played really well for the first 15 or so minutes of the game, but then we had too many breakdowns on defense and OBU was able to get its offense rolling,” Downey said. “We didn’t come to play following our opening 15 minutes of play.”

In the second half, OBU pushed its lead out to 32-23 just a little under two minutes out of the locker room, before Tech used a 5-0 run thanks to a three-point play by Marcus and a lay-up by Flowers to pull within 32-28 with 16:15 left in the game. That would be as close as Tech would get as the Tigers used a 20-8 run over the next six minutes to push out to a 52-36 lead. The lead would eventually grow to as much as 34 points at 82-48 on a lay-up by Rowan Ledbetter with 1:43 remaining in the game. OBU outscored Tech, 57-32 in the second stanza.

“We were able to get within four points early in the second half and the floodgates just opened up and we couldn’t stop it,” the second-year Tech coach said. “We weren’t tough enough to respond to OBU’s aggressiveness in the second half.”

Marcus led the way for Tech with 15 points and added seven rebounds, while Flowers chipped in with 13 points in the loss.

Tech, who outrebounded OBU, 40-38, finished the game shooting a season-low 33 percent from the field and shot just 13 percent (2-for-15) from the 3-point line and committed 21 turnovers that led to 28 OBU points. Meanwhile, OBU finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field, including 62 percent in the second half and shot 50 percent (10-for-20) from the 3-point line in the win.

OBU was paced offensively by Marks, who scored a game-high 22 points, while Justin Delamar scored 15 points. Ledbetter added 13 points and Memo Rodriguez tallied 10 points in his final home game as a Tiger.

“I don’t know what it is about Jaramino (Marks), but he seems to like to play against Tech,” Downey added. In six career games against Tech, Marks has scored 73 points, including scoring 27 points in two games this season.

          Downey said that his team needs to get this loss out of their system and begin focusing on the postseason.

          “We have earned another chance to play basketball and I’m hoping our kids are able to get focused and begin preparing to play in the postseason this coming week in the GSC Tournament,” said Downey.

          Ouachita Baptist Box Score       

-- Tech Athletics --