No. 7 Mississippi College won their fifteenth straight game with a 65-47 win over the Eagles in American Southwest Conference play on Saturday.
The Eagles (5-11, 4-8) hung tough in the first half, but had trouble keeping up with the Choctaws (15-1, 12-0) in the final twenty minutes of play. Mississippi College held a 33-25 edge at the half thanks to a 15-of-28 (53%) shooting effort from the field. A David Green jumper at the 12:03 mark made the score 13-10 in favor of the Choctaws. Mississippi College then raced out to a 19-10 lead two minutes later. The Choctaws extended their advantage to 30-17 with 5:19 left in the half. Ozarks fought back with a 8-3 run in the final five minutes of the half to narrow the gap.
Tony Daniels hit a three-pointer at the 17:10 mark of the second half to cut the deficit to 35-32. The Choctaws then powered their way to 15-0 run over the next five minutes to extend their lead to 50-35. The Choctaws held the lead for the final fifteen minutes of the game behind a hot shooting performance from the floor. Mississippi College hit 66 percent of their shots in the second half while Ozarks only hit 26 percent from the field.
Jeremy Clark led the Eagles with 10 points. Despite a sizable height advantage, the Choctaws only out rebounded the Eagles 33-31. Chris Williams had a team-high 8 rebounds.
Ozarks will host University of Texas-Dallas on Thursday and then host University of Texas-Tyler on Saturday in the Hall of Fame Game. Former Ozarks stars Kenneth Little and Lori (Myers) Hines will be inducted following the women’s game that day.