Valiant effort falls short as Muleriders edged by #15 Southern Nazarene, 62-60

 

January 28, 2018



MAGNOLIA, Ark. – In front of a raucous W.T. Watson Center crowd, the Southern Arkansas Mulerider Basketball team, riding a seven-game Great American Conference win streak, overcame a 19-point second-half deficit and pushed No. 15 Southern Nazarene (16-1, 13-0 GAC) to the limit, before coming up short despite the valiant effort in a 62-60 defeat on Saturday afternoon in Magnolia.

With just under 17 minutes remaining in the game and leading by eight, Southern Nazarene's Jhonathan Dunn hit all three of the Crimson Storm's successful three-point field goals on Saturday in back-to-back-to-back possessions and capped that 9-0 run with a midrange jumper at the 15:19 mark of the second half to give SNU a 43-24 lead.

Entering Saturday afternoon's contest, the Crimson Storm owned the league's second-best three-point shooting mark at just over 40%, but managed just the three aforementioned makes by Dunn in 14 total attempts (21.4%) as the Muleriders employed a pesky perimeter defense to go along with a gritty effort inside.

Trailing by 19, the Muleriders began to fight back into the ballgame beginning with a pair of free throw makes from Aaron Lucas and a paint jumper by Wesley Nosakhare on consecutive possessions to trim the deficit to 15. The ensuing trip down the court for the Muleriders following Nosakhare's bucket resulted in Lucas finding Gabe Gilliam who hit a key three-pointer that brought the Mulerider faithful back to life and the Muleriders within a dozen points of what previously seemed like an unsurmountable deficit.

Southern Nazarene would manage to build its lead back to 16 with 11:26 left in the game, but it was Gilliam, the rookie trigger man, who rattled off back-to-back trifectas to pull Southern Arkansas to within ten points at 49-39 with just under nine minutes to play.

The two teams would each trade a pair of inside buckets, before Draylan Perkins created a look from range and nailed a three-point attempt to pull Southern Arkansas within seven points at 53-46 with 6:26 to play. Three minutes later, Southern Nazarene's lead dwindled to four as DeVante Brooks converted three of four shots from the free throw line in back-to-back trips down the court.

Down by four, CJ Elkins nailed a jumper to send the Watson Center into a frenzy and bring SAU to within a basket of the lead. Despite two opportunities for the Muleriders to tie the game after Perkins turned Dunn over following the bucket by Elkins, the Muleriders trailed by just three, 54-51, following a foul and technical assessed to the SAU bench.

Dunn increased the Southern Nazarene advantage to five, 56-51, with 1:11 to play, but with 30 seconds remaining Elkins knocked down a jumper to pull SAU to within a bucket of the lead. Moments after Dunn converted a pair of free throw attempts to push the SNU lead back to five, Elkins answered with a three-point make to cut the lead to two with 15 seconds to play.

Dunn again made good on both free throw attempts and Elkins once again responded as he hit his second-straight three-point shot and third-consecutive bucket to bring SAU to within a point of the lead, 60-59.

SNU's Micah Speight made both free attempts to again put the Crimson Storm back up three points, but with seven seconds to play, Elkins was fouled while hurrying the ball up the court. The junior would hit the first free throw and while needing to miss the second attempt in hopes of SAU getting a quick rebound and putback to tie the game, Southern Nazarene knocked the ball out of bounds giving the Muleriders one shot to catch-and-shoot to win the game.

Elkins' acrobatic attempt at a long three missed high as league-leading Southern Nazarene survived Southern Arkansas in a thriller.

Elkins went for 17 points and added six rebounds, while Gilliam followed with 11 points, two rebounds and a steal and Brooks chipped in with nine points and a game-high dozen rebounds. Charlie Thomas followed with seven rebounds and KJ Collins grabbed six boards.

SAU outscored SNU in second chance points (13-8), but the Crimson Storm turned 16 Mulerider turnovers into 17 points. Southern Arkansas managed just a first-half bucket off of a dozen SNU turnovers. The Crimson Storm shot 73% (11-of-15) from the line, while the Muleriders made just seven of their 16 attempts from the charity stripe.

Southern Arkansas held the Crimson Storm to their lowest point total of the season and became the first GAC team to hold SNU under 72 points in a league contest. It was just the fourth game this season that Southern Nazarene has been held under 70 points and it was the second-fewest points allowed by Southern Arkansas to a Division II opponent this year.

The Muleriders' seven-game win streak was the longest for the program since the 2014-15 season when that year's team won eight-consecutive contests.

Southern Arkansas hits the road for a pivotal weekend trip into Oklahoma and returns to action on Thursday, February 1, for a league matchup with Southeastern Oklahoma State. Tip-off from Durant is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Live coverage links are available at http://www.MuleriderAthletics.com.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 

Our Family of Publications Includes:

Arc
Newsgram

Powered by ROAR Online Publication Software from Lions Light Corporation
© Copyright 2024