Alva Review-Courier -

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Ouachita Tigers basketball team lost to Southeastern Oklahoma State 88-79 on Saturday afternoon inside Bill Vining arena.

Ouachita (9-13, 7-10 GAC) is back on a losing streak after dropping two home games this past week to East Central and Southeastern (11-6, 12-10 GAC).

Wesley Franklin (Frisco, Texas) got the Tigers offense rolling early on as he collected the first two buckets of the game. The Savage Storm quickly took the lead back though with a 7-0 run.

With 12:33 to play in the opening half Southeastern had a 16-8 advantage over the Tigers. Kendarious Smith (Canton, Miss.) then brought the crowd back into the game as he went on a 5-0 of his own to pull the Tigers back within three.

At the 9:25 mark of the game the Savage Storm held a 25-17 lead. The Tigers defense shut down the Savage Storm as they did not score a single point for six-and-a-half minutes of game time. Meanwhile, the Tigers went on a 10-0 run to regain a two-point advantage.

Mahlon Martin (Little Rock, Ark.) hit a three-pointer with 44 seconds to go in the half to give the Tigers the 32-31 lead going into the halftime break.

It was the Franklin show in the second half for Ouachita as the junior scored 17 second half points to keep the Tigers in the game.

For the first six minutes of the second half the game was a back-and-forth contest between the two schools as they matched each other bucket-for-bucket.

Markell Henderson hit a three-pointer with 13:45 to play to give the Savage Storm a seven-point cushion over the Tigers. The seven-point lead blossomed into a 15-point lead and forced Ouachita to call a timeout with 11:55 to play.

At the 6:35 mark in the game the Savage Storm appeared to have the game well in hand up 71-54, but then all of a sudden Southeastern went completely cold on offense. The Savage Storm offense once again did not score a single point for four-and-a-half minutes.

The scoring draught by the Savage Storm allowed the Tigers to cut into the lead. Martin began to catch fire as he scored 9 points in the final minute of play. Despite the efforts from Martin and Franklin the Savage Storm made their free throws down the stretch to seal the game.

Franklin ended the evening with 27 points, Martin finished with 17 points, Jordan Corbitt (Frisco, Texas) added 11 points and Matt Stanley (Cabot, Ark.) contributed another 10.

Southeastern had four players in double figures. Jett Jobe had 23 points, Henderson had 21 points, A'Torey Everett had 17 points and Kevin Buckingham finished with 16.

The Tigers will try and break out of their slump on Thursday evening against Harding University. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside Bill Vining Arena.