FORT SMITH, Arkansas – Harding ran out to an early lead and never flinched to hand the Ouachita men's basketball team an 83-66 loss on Saturday evening in the semifinals of the Great American Conference championship tournament.
The Bisons dominated the first half from start to finish, starting with a 10-0 run in the first four minutes. Ouachita was 0-for-7 during that stretch, while the Bisons started 5-for-5. The Tigers could not find an answer defensively for Harding's Sam Smith, who was four for his first five shots, mostly open floaters near the basket.
Ouachita rallied and cut the deficit down to two at the 12-minute media timeout with the Bisons leading 14-12. The Tigers had held the Bisons without a made field goal for more than three minutes.
The high-percentage shooting for the Bisons came back to give them another double-digit lead with just under nine minutes remaining in the half. Ouachita stayed cold, hovering around or below 20 percent from the field and going scoreless for a period of nearly four minutes.
Another scoring drought of more than three minutes allowed the Bisons to lead by as much as 21 at the 2:56 mark. Harding led 41-21 at the break.
The second half started in a similar fashion as the first with the Bisons turning to Sam Smith for floaters in the lane. Smith started the second half 5-for-5 and finished the game with 26 points.
Harding shot better than 60 percent from the field in the second half, which prevented a Tiger comeback. Ouachita cut it to 15 on multiple occasions.
Reggie Martin wrapped up his collegiate career on a high individual note with a career-high 28 points. He also tied Hobert Grayson for the team-high in rebounds with eight each. After only scoring three points in the first half, Grayson stormed back to finish with 18 for the game. Devyn Franklin added 10 points.
The Tigers finished the game shooting 32 percent from the field (20-for-62), 14 percent on three-pointers (3-for-21), and 82 percent on foul shots (23-for-28). Harding finished at 56 percent overall (31-for-55), 38 percent on threes (8-for-21), and 81 percent on foul shots (13-for-16).
With the No. 10 spot in the latest NCAA regional rankings, the Tigers needed to win this weekend's tournament to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, which takes the top eight from each region. Ouachita finishes at 22-8 overall to mark the most successful season for the program in the NCAA era in terms of total wins.
