ARAKDELPHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University men's basketball team dropped its home game against the Savage Storm of Southeastern Oklahoma State by a score of 83-70 Saturday afternoon at Bill Vining Arena.
The game started out back-and-forth, with Southeastern (16-9, 13-7 GAC) maintaining a single possession lead over Ouachita (10-14, 8-12 GAC) over the first few minute of action. The game also saw a slow start for both teams, as neither team reached double digits until the Tigers reached 10 points on a
Ma'Darius Hobson jumper six minutes into the game to give them a 10-8 lead. Then it was Ouachita holding onto a small one or two possession lead over the next four minutes until the game was tied at 16-16. SOSU then took the lead a few shots later and pushed that lead up to seven points with six minutes left. The Tigers then went on a 7-0 run to tie the game up again at 28 on another Hobson jumper with four minutes left. The Tigers and Storm traded leads and ties over the last four minutes of the half, with SOSU tying it up at 37 points with 14 seconds left, and the two teams went into the halftime break tied at 37. In total, the first half saw five lead changes and seven ties.
The second half saw Southeastern come out and take the lead. The Storm would hold this lead the entire 20 minutes of the second half, with the lead extending to double digits by the 14-minute mark. The Tigers would try to cut into the deficit, but were not able to bring the game closer than eight points in the second half. SOSU pulled away from the Ouachita and ended the game with the Tigers falling 83-70 with two games left in the regular season.
LaQuan Butler Jr. followed up his great 29-point performance Thursday night with 27 points this afternoon to lead all scorers. Butler Jr. scored those 27 points on 10-18 shooting, including going 4-4 at the free throw line.
Alex Scariolo was next in scoring with 16 points on 6-10 shooting.
Ma'Darius Hobson followed with 12 points and two steals.
Ouachita currently sits at ninth place in the GAC, one game out of making the GAC tournament, with two games left in the regular season. The Tigers are tied with SWOSU, but the Bulldogs hold the tiebreaker over Ouachita. The two games left are against eleventh place UAM and second place SAU.
The Tigers will look to keep their postseason hopes alive as they head to Magnolia to take on the second-place Muleriders of Southern Arkansas next Thursday, February 23.
