ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita men's basketball team led from tip to final buzzer in its final non-conference game of the season, winning 109-82 over Champion Christian College Saturday afternoon at Bill Vining Arena.
Ouachita opened the game hot, jumping out to a 10-0 lead after the first two minutes and 17 seconds of action. Champion Christian managed to keep Ouachita's lead around the 10-point mark for the majority of the first half. Ouachita would push it out to 12 points and Champion would cut it right back to single digits. The purple Tigers started to extend their lead at the four-and-a-half-minute mark in the first half when they went up by 18. Ouachita's lead hit the 20-point mark with the Tigers up 58-37 with just 18 seconds left in the half. Champion hit a last-second three and Ouachita went into the break leading 58-40.
It only took 45 seconds for Ouachita to get back to a 20-point lead in the second half. After trading the next few shots, Ouachita went back up by 21 with 17:41 on the clock and the purple Tigers' lead never dipped below 20 points for the remainder of the game. Ouachita kept the pressure on Champion and made sure to have an answer for almost every shot the navy Tigers made. Ouachita's lead hit the 30-point mark with just over eight minutes left in the game. The purple Tigers led by as many as 34 points in the contest. With 6:17 left, Ouachita hit the century mark for the second straight game. From there, Ouachita cruised over the final five minutes of play to secure the 109-82 win over Champion, the Tigers' fifth straight win.
After scoring 137 points in Tuesday's win over Ecclesia, the Tigers have now score 100 points twice in the same season for the first time since 2007-08. This also marks the first time in the NCAA-era that Ouachita has scored 100-plus in back-to-back games.
Leading the way for Ouachita was none other than
Hobert Grayson with a career-high 33 points on 13-for-20 shooting and 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double and second 30-point outing of the season.
Devyn Franklin was second in scoring and rebounding with a career-high 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting with seven boards.
Shaun Williams was the third and final Tiger in double figures with 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Williams led the team with seven assists and zero turnovers.
Gavin Snyder led the team with three steals.
With tonight's win, the Tigers close out non-conference action, minus an exhibition game against UA-Little Rock on December 10, and will be riding their five-game win streak into Great American Conference play when they travel to take on East Central University on Thursday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Ada, Oklahoma.
