ARKADEPLHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University men's basketball team saw career nights from
Ma'Darius Hobson and
Tylar Haynes as it held on and defeated the Northwestern Oklahoma State University Rangers 83-75 Saturday night.
With the Tigers' leading scorer,
LaQuan Butler Jr., on the bench due to injury, someone was needed to step up. Two Tigers stepped up big tonight as
Ma'Darius Hobson and
Tylar Haynes both put on incredible performances. Hobson scored a career-high 29 points and Haynes career-high 27 points in the win.
Ouachita (6-6, 4-4 GAC) once again started out slow, falling behind NWOSU (6-6, 2-4 GAC) 11-4 early in the first half. Ouachita began to get back into the game and hung with the Rangers, keeping the gap at no more than five points for a majority of the half. The Tigers took their first lead of the afternoon on a
Tylar Haynes jumper to go up 29-28 with just over two minutes left in the first half. Both teams traded shots in the final two minutes to tie the game 32-32 going into halftime.
The Rangers would score first in half number two, but Ouachita tied it up and took the lead on a pair of shots from Hobson and would not trail again for the remainder of the game. NWOSU would try to chip away at the Tiger's lead, which grew to be 11 points on two separate occasions, but Ouachita remained on top. The Tigers only allowed their lead to shrink to a single possession once within the last 18 minutes of the game. A majority of the late game points came from the charity stripe, as the Tigers went 23-30 on free throws as a whole, including 18-22 in the second half alone. The 23 made and 30 attempted free throws were the most by the Tigers this season.
Ma'Darius Hobson showed out on the floor tonight, as mentioned earlier, he put up a career-high 29 points, but he did it on 10-17 shooting and went 8-9 at the free throw line. Hobson also picked up seven rebounds and three assists on the night. Those 29 points were the most by a Tiger in a single game since KD Smith scored 34 in February 2019.
Tylar Haynes was another top Tiger tonight, putting up his career-high 27 points on 10-14 shooting while going 6-8 from the charity stripe. Haynes also picked up six boards on the night.
Reggie Martin and
Alex Scariolo also reached double-digit scoring tonight, putting up 12 and 11 points respectively.
Marvin Williams-Dunn played a big role in tonight's victory as well, dishing out a career-high nine assists to lead all players, while also snagging three steals and two blocks. The nine assists were the most by a Tiger in a single game since Jordan Corbitt handed out 12 against UAM in January of 2017.
Ouachita will look to make it three in a row with their next contest coming Thursday, January 19 against the Harding Bisons at Bill Vining Arena.
