ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita men's basketball team picked up its first win of 2024 with a 73-66 victory over defending GAC Champion Southern Nazarene University Saturday afternoon at Bill Vining Arena.
The game started out slow for both sides, with Ouachita (4-7, 2-4 GAC) making the first shot of the game at the 18:22 mark. Over three minutes later, Southern Nazarene (4-7, 1-5 GAC) made the next shot of the game to tie it at 2-2. The two teams traded shots and small leads over the next eight minutes. The Tigers reached double digits first at the 7:59 mark of the first half on a three from
Emorie Knox. SNU tied things back up quickly, but the Tigers retook the lead at the 7:07 mark and never trailed again. Ouachita pushed its first half lead to six but took a 28-26 lead into the halftime break.
The Tigers came out hot in the second half, pushing their lead to double digits less than six minutes in. Ouachita's lead hit its peak at 15 points with 12:12 left in the game. The Crimson Storm tried to cut into the Tigers' lead, but the smallest it got from that point was five points with only four seconds left. Ouachita held on, going 6-of-7 from the free throw line over the final 30 seconds, to secure its first win of 2024 by a score of 73-66 over the Crimson Storm.
Emorie Knox was the leading scorer for the Tigers with 22 points on 7-12 shooting that included going 4-of-6 from three-point range and a perfect 4-for-4 at the free throw line. Knox also tallied up two assists, two blocks, and two steals on the afternoon.
Reggie Martin was next in scoring with 15 points while going 5-of-6 at the charity stripe.
Tylar Haynes followed with 13 points and six rebounds.
Terran Williams led the Tigers in rebounds with a season-high 10 and assists with three.
Ouachita forced 17 turnovers, the second most all season and the most all season in a conference game, and scored 23 points off those turnovers, compared to SNU only forcing nine and scoring 11 points off them.
The Tigers will look to continue their success on the road next week as they travel to take on the Rangers of Northwestern Oklahoma State University on Thursday, January 11 in Alva, Oklahoma. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
