ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita men's basketball team took down the Crusaders of Dallas Christian College 95-70 on Thursday night in the Tiger's home opener at Vining Arena.
Ouachita struck first in the 2024 home opener against Dallas Christian on a
Shaun Williams' three-pointer. After starting out close with the Crusaders, the Tigers started to take control of the contest around the 15-minute mark with an eight-point lead. Ouachita's lead hit the double-digit mark with 10:06 left to go in the opening half on a three from
Rollin Belton. From there, Ouachita continued to expand its lead, going up by 20 points with just over a minute to go in the half. The Tigers went into the break leading 56-34.
The second half was more of the same for Ouachita. The Tigers' lead hit 30 points at the 15:31 mark, and then reached the 40-point mark just four minutes later with Ouachita going up 82-42 with 11:48 left to play. Dallas Christian cut into the Tigers lead some over the final 10 minutes, but it was too little too late. Ouachita secured its first home victory of the season, winning comfortably by 25 points with the score of 95-70.
Hobert Grayson lit up the stat sheet in the win, leading all players with 26 points and 18 rebounds, good for his second double-double of the season. Grayson's 18 rebounds are the most by a Tiger in a single game in the GAC era and the most since Ed Keyes grabbed 19 in 2007.
Williams was the next leading scorer, racking up 22 points for the third straight game.
Devyn Franklin was next with 12 points to round out the Tigers in double figures. Franklin was also second on the team in rebounding with seven board.
Three Tigers tied for the lead in assists with four,
Gavin Snyder, Williams, and
PJ Neal.
As a team, the Tigers shot almost 54 percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point range in the win.
The Tigers will look to make it three wins in a row when they host Delta State University on Thursday, November 21 at 7 p.m. in Vining Arena.
