Weekend losses drop Bisons to 5-7 in GSC

Christian Brothers 77, Harding 67

#10 Christian Brothers visited Searcy on Thursday hoping to get a little revenge for Trent Morgan’s buzzer-beater earlier this season in Memphis.  They did just that, holding the Bisons to 36% shooting from the field in a 77-67 win.

Nick Kohs and Reggie Peyton scored 45 of CBU’s points, while Steven Barnett was the only offensive threat for the Bisons, with a career-high 20 points.  The game’s only other double-figure scorer was Kirk Porter, and no other Bison made more than three field goals.

The turnover and rebounding battles were fairly even in this game, so the Bucs won this one on defense.  The shooting guards had an especially rough night: Morgan, Sam Brown, and Stephen Blake together made just 6 of 25 shots, totaling 18 points.

Kevin Brown and Porter fouled out of the game (as did Barnett), and Brian Howard only played 13 minutes, so the Bisons had even less size out on the floor than usual in this one.  Nick Kohs finished with 12 rebounds and a double-double, but it wasn’t that bad considering the circumstances.

Arkansas-Monticello 78, Harding 62

The Bisons had a chance to pull into a fourth-place tie on Saturday at Arkansas-Monticello against a struggling Weevil team.  UAM prevailed, though, and the Bisons are now tied with Southern Arkansas for the fifth spot in the GSC West standings.

Ray Wright led both teams in scoring with 22 points, while the Steven/Stephen guard duo (Barnett/Blake) had 18 apiece for the Bisons.  Trent Morgan’s struggles continued, as he made just 1 of 11 shots from the field.  Barnett did most of his scoring at the charity stripe (12-for-16), while Blake was on fire from long range (5-for-8).

The Bisons shot just 37% and lost the rebounding battle in a major way, allowing the Weevils to succeed on over half of their offensive rebound chances.  The Weevils are a much more athletic team, but the Bisons were more competitive when they played in Searcy last month.

The Bisons’ last two conference games are at Delta State and at home vs. Ouachita Baptist.  They split close games against the two in the first half of the conference schedule.  SAU will swap last week’s schedule with the Bisons, hosting CBU and visiting UAM to close the season.  Right now, I like the Bisons’ chances of reaching the GSC Tournament better than the Muleriders’, mostly because of the schedule.