ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Harding men's basketball plays its third consecutive road game in Great American Conference play Thursday against Ouachita Baptist. Tip-off at Vining Arena will be at 7:30 p.m. It will be the sixth straight home game for the Tigers, including the fourth straight conference game.
The game will air live in Searcy on KVHU 95.3-FM and worldwide on HardingSports.com with Billy Morgan and Scott Goode on the call. There will be no live stats or live video available.
There is a logjam at the top of the GAC standings early in the season, with six teams, including both Harding and Ouachita Baptist, with only one loss. The Bisons enter the game 7-6 overall and 2-1 in conference play. The Tigers are 10-4 overall and 3-1 in the GAC.
Harding is coming off a two-game trip to Oklahoma that saw the Bisons defeat East Central 78-71 and fall 85-67 to Southwestern Oklahoma State.
Junior center Zach Roddenberry led Harding in scoring and rebounding in both games. He scored 23 points and had seven rebounds against East Central, then scored 23 again with 10 rebounds against Southwestern Oklahoma for his second double-double of the season. Roddenberry has led Harding in rebounding in each of the team's last six games.
Harding has shot 50 percent or better from the field in each of its three conference games. The sharp shooting from the Bisons is due in large part to Roddenberry's efforts. The junior leads Division II in field goal percentage at 76.0 percent, hitting 76 of his 100 shots this season. In conference games, Roddenberry has been even more impressive, shooting at a 78.8 percent clip (26-of-33).
Ouachita Baptist, in its first season under head coach Dennis Nutt, will play at home for the 12th time in 14 games this season. The Tigers are also led by one of the best shooters in the GAC. Junior guard Austin Mitchell ranks fourth in Division II with 3.5 3-point field goals made per game and 11th in 3-point shooting percentage at 48.0 percent. He is Ouachita Baptist's leading scorer at 17.3 points per game.
Harding and Ouachita Baptist will be meeting for the 118th time in a series that began in 1957. The Bisons have won 21 times in 56 previous meetings in Arkadelphia, including the last four straight. Harding has won the last nine meetings overall and 11 of the last 12.
