The Ouachita Baptist University Tigers men’s basketball team suffered a tough loss to the University of Arkansas at Monticello 63-59. Fouls and turnovers were costly in the loss as the turnover ratio was -3 for the Tigers, and they had a total of 22 fouls.
“They threw a 1-3-1 defense on us and it got us out of our rhythm but we should’ve adjusted quicker,” Coach Dennis Nutt said. Nutt said his full court defense “was a big part in our late second half comeback, it was my fault that I did not put it on sooner but we still should have won that ball game.”
The OBU Tigers shot 45.1% from the field while UAM shot 37.7%. The Tigers were 8-11 from the free throw line but that didn’t match up to UAM’s 20-26. The Tigers just could not get to the line. The big struggles were the 15 turnover the Tigers had and the 22 fouls that were committed to put the Boll Weevils in the bonus early in the second half. Micah Delph put up 21 points for OBU. He tied for the highest scorer of the game with Brandon Wilson from UAM who was only 5-13 from the field but was 11-15 at the line.
Three-point shooting was huge for the Boll Weevils as the shot 42.9% from beyond the arc, contributing to most of their points besides their free throws. The Tigers struggled handling the ball and committed too many fouls towards the end of the game and that is when the game slipped away. Ouachita was down 6 with about two minutes to play and got it to a 3 point game with 30 seconds left. They had the ball and turned it over to the Boll Weevils and had to foul to get the ball back. Wilson for UAM making 1-2 on that trip to the foul line pushed the game out of reach with only 10 seconds to play in the game.
Eric Braeuer had 15 points for the Tigers. He was 6-15 from the field overall and 5-7 at the charity stripe. UAM’s Dayton Mickens was on point tonight as he was 9-13 from the field overall not missing a single 3 point shot and contributed 17 points to the Boll Weevils victory.
Without as many turnovers and foul trouble, OBU could have pulled out a win tonight but that isn’t how things went. It was a tough loss to come so close in the final minutes and the game to slip away. Clutch performances by Mickens and Wilson for UAM helped seal the victory. This puts the University of Arkansas at Monticello at (12-5, 5-4) and Ouachita Baptist Tigers at (5-10, 2-7).
