Weevils Face Heartbreak in Valentine's Day Game
Kelly Freeman
Staff Writer
The Ouachita Baptist Tigers men’s basketball team defeated the University of Arkansas Monticello’s Boll Weevils 68-64 in their ninth Gulf South Conference game of the season at Steelman Fieldhouse in Monticello Feb 14.
The game went into overtime with 61 points on the board where the leading scorer Ed Keys raked in four points for the Tigers. The Weevils started leading in overtime with a 3-pointer by Duke Sturdivant, the only points scored by UAM in overtime. The score tied four times throughout the game.
OBU’s focus on rebounding led them to victory, while UAM’s miss of free throws cost them the game. Deron Brown and Marcus Baham led the Weevils with 12 points. Not far behind, Bernard Seymour came in at 11 and Duke Sturdivant at 10. Keys led OBU with 18 points on the scoreboard, and Memo Rodriguez scored 16 and Antonio Benjamin made 12.
“The free-throw shooting caused us the game last night. We beat ourselves, ” head coach Mike Newell said. “Until last night, we controlled our own destiny; now we’ve got to depend on some other people to upset some schools.”
In the GSC, UAM recently led in free-throw percentages. UAM started with a free-throw percentage of 70 in the first half and later declined to 33.3 percent in the second half. OBU increased their percentage from 50 to 58.3 in the second half. Newell said the players missed easy lay-ups and free throws.
Before the game, UAM’s 6’8” center Jermaine Samuels expressed no weaknesses, “When we play as a team, we’re unbeatable.”
Although a knee injury left Marius Williams unable to play, Newell said it didn’t affect the game.
“We’ve grown accustomed to not having him,” Newell said.
Williams didn’t play in the past 13 games. The Weevils played all other players despite the team’s recent bout with the flu. Other injuries included Deron Brown with a concussion and Marcus Baham with a foot injury.
The game put UAM at 13-9 overall (5-4 GSC) and OBU 16-6 overall (7-2 GSC). It marked UAM’s first home loss in the conference.
OBU returned home to Arkadelphia to play Harding at 7 p.m. Feb 16. UAM traveled to Cleveland, Miss., to play Delta State for the second time Saturday at 6 p.m.
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