Harding Game Notes
SEARCY – The Harding Bisons play the first of three home games in a five-day span Saturday when they host Arkansas-Monticello at the Rhodes Field House for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
COACHES: Harding is coached by Jeff Morgan, who enters his 18th season as the Head coach of the Bisons. Morgan has compiled a 302-202 record at HU. He has 285 of those victories in his 17 seasons at Harding.
Arkansas-Monticello is coached by Mike Newell, who is in his ninth year as head coach of the Boll Weevils and has a 124-121 record. He is 300-224 in 27 seasons as a head coach.
THE BISONS: The Bisons have won four of their last five games and are seeking their second winning streak of three games or more this season.
Harding is currently 5-6 and tied with Christian Brothers for fourth place in the GSC West. Arkansas-Monticello is third at 7-4. The top four teams advance to the GSC Tournament.
HU has two players averaging in double figures during the GSC season. Junior Kevin Brown leads the team with 15.7 points per game. Sophomore Kirk Porter is second with 10.7 points per game, followed by sophomore Stephen Blake at 9.9 per game.
Junior Kevin Brown scored 25 points against Christian Brothers to become only the 31st Harding player to score 1,000 points in a career. Brown is 28th in career scoring with 1,014 career points.
Trent Morgan enters the Arkansas-Monticello game with 177 career steals, second all-time at Harding. With one more steal, Morgan will move into fourth in GSC history.
Harding shot 53 free throws in the game against Southern Arkansas, the most ever by a Bison team in a GSC game, the third-most in any game and the most in a game in more than 14 seasons.
Harding junior
Kevin Brown had five blocked shots vs. Christian Brothers, the most by a Bison player since Brent Adams had five vs. East Central in 1999. Brown also moved into second in a Harding single season with 34 blocks, trailing only the 55 by Adams in the 1998-99 season.
THE BOLL WEEVILS: Harding junior
Kevin Brown had five blocked shots vs. Christian Brothers, the most by a Bison player since Brent Adams had five vs. East Central in 1999. Brown also moved into second in a Harding single season with 34 blocks, trailing only the 55 by Adams in the 1998-99 season.
Arkansas-Monticello is one of the top rebounding teams in the nation. The Boll Weevils lead the GSC and rank 11th in NCAA Division II with a margin of more than seven rebounds per game. UAM has four different players who average five or more rebounds per game.
Jarrell Turner, a 6-4 junior forward from Chicago, Ill., transferred to UAM from South Suburban College in Illinois. Turner ranks second in the GSC in minutes played (36.0), sixth in rebounds (7.6), sixth in FG percentage (49.1) and ninth in scoring (14.5).
In the most recent NCAA II rankings (released Feb. 14), Arkansas-Monticello ranked last nationally in free throw percentage (57.1). The Boll Weevils have improved slightly since then (58.2), but still rank last in the GSC.
SERIES: Harding and Arkansas-Monticello are meeting for the 108th time with the Boll Weevils leading the series 56-51. Harding has won two of the last three meetings in Searcy, but Arkansas-Monticello has won the last four meetings overall.
