Southern Arkansas University used a big rebounding edge to walk out of Tucker Coliseum in Russellville with a 79-65 Great American Conference men’s basketball victory over Arkansas Tech University on Wednesday night.
The Muleriders (8-2 overall, 3-1 GAC) out-rebounded the Wonder Boys 49-29 and finished with a 21-7 edge in second-chance points.
“Their big guys dominated us,” said Chad Kline, ATU head coach. “They kept pounding it inside and we couldn’t get a stop. We didn’t have any rhythm offensively in the second half, and we had too many careless turnovers.”
Southern Arkansas led 44-40 at halftime. Mason Cline’s 3-pointer at the 13:15 mark of the second half pulled the Wonder Boys (2-7, 0-4) within 55-53, but that proved to be Tech’s final made field goal for a span of almost nine minutes.
The Muleriders took advantage, outscoring the Wonder Boys 16-4 over that span to build an insurmountable 71-57 advantage with 4:41 to go.
DeVante Brooks paced SAU with 14 points.
Ramses Sandifer had 13 points, Will Adler netted 12 points, R.J. Glasper had 11 points and Alex Brown finished with 10 points for Tech, which suffered its fifth consecutive defeat.
The Wonder Boys will face Texas A&M University-Kingsville for a neutral-site, non-conference contest in Waco, Texas, on Saturday, Dec. 15. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
