ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita men's basketball team capped off their first 20-win regular season in 10 years with an 85-56 win over the University of Arkansas at Monticello Saturday afternoon on Senior Night.
Ouachita (21-7, 16-6 GAC) started off the final game of the regular season hot with two alley-oop dunks. The Tigers took an early 12-4 lead over Arkansas-Monticello (4-24, 1-21 GAC), but the Boll Weevils showed some fight and closed the gap to just one point by the 7:26 mark in the first half.
Ouachita got back in the driver's seat and less than three minutes later, the Tigers were up by double digits. Another two minutes after that, Ouachita's lead had grown to 20 points. The Tigers went into the break leading 45-25.
The Tigers stayed in control to start the second half. UAM brought the lead under 20 points for a few minutes early in the half, but Ouachita began to push the pace again. The lead for Ouachita hit the 30-point mark with just over eight minutes to go in the game. The Tigers would lead by as many as 37 points over the final six minutes and cruised to a commanding 85-56 win over the Weevils.
Saturday's win was Ouachita's 21st of the season. Before today, 21 wins was something that the Tigers had not accomplished since the Bill Vining era, more specifically, the 1986-87 season, in which Ouachita posted a 23-6 record.
Shaun Williams led all scorers with 22 points that included shooting 5-for-9 from three-point range. The St. Louis, Missouri native also led all passers with six assists and tied for the team lead in steals with two. Williams eclipsed the 500-point mark for the season; his 22 points gave the graduate student 506 for the regular season.
Hobert Grayson was close behind with 21 points and led all rebounders with 13 boards. The Gonzales, Louisiana native recorded his 16th double-double of the season, his 21st 20-plus point game of the season, and his 17th game of the year with at leas 10 rebounds. Grayson scored a total of 626 points so far this season, which ranks seventh all time in Ouachita history. The junior forward recorded 318 rebounds so far, which ranks sixth all time in program history.
Reggie Martin was third in scoring with 19 points and tied for the team lead in steals with two.
Grayson and Williams are the first pair of Tigers to both score 500 points in the same season in the NCAA era for Ouachita. They are the first duo of players to combine for 1000 points in the same season for Ouachita (1132 points so far) since Tirrell Brown and Lakee Westbrook combined for 1015 points in the 2015-16 season, which is the only other instance in the NCAA era for Ouachita.
Prior to today's game, Ouachita honored its four seniors:
Rollin Belton,
Reggie Martin,
MJ Leslie, and
Shaun Williams. All four of whom have contributed greatly to Tiger Basketball during their careers as Tigers.
The season isn't over yet for the Tigers, as Ouachita has secured the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Great American Conference Tournament and will take on the No. 7 seed on Thursday, March 6 at 2:15 p.m. at Southside Arena in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
