ADA, Okla. – Junior guard Blake Rogers registered a career-high 26 points, the most by a Mulerider this season, and senior forward Devante Brooks filled up his stat ledger with a double-double for the ninth time this year and for the eighth-consecutive game, but Southern Arkansas was slowed late on the road Thursday night in Ada as East Central topped the Muleriders 81-77 in Great American Conference action. The defeat snaps a four-game winning streak by SAU and drops the team’s overall record to 9-4 with a 5-2 mark in league play.

Rogers matched the highest made shot output by a Mulerider this season with nine. He added one assist and one rebound. Brooks’ ninth double-double was a result of 19 points and 11 rebounds with one steal and an assist.

The contest saw eight lead changes with seven coming in the second half to go along with six tied scores, four of which occurred in the final twenty minutes of play.

A layup by Brooks cut the SAU deficit to a penny at 65-64 with 4:47 to play. The Tigers responded with a three-point bucket to go up four points, but it was an ‘and-1’ effort from senior guard Aaron Lucas at the 2:33 mark that again brought the Muleriders to within a point of the Tiger lead at 68-67. Over the next 70 seconds, ECU quickly engineered a 7-0 run to lead 74-67 with 1:02 to play. East Central’s lead grew to as much as nine points in the final sixty seconds before nestling at four by the final horn.

The Tigers scored ten of the game’s first 13 points as ECU built a seven-point advantage at the 13:42 mark of the opening 20 minutes of play. However, the Muleriders, much like Stella, would find their groove and engineer a 14-6 run which led to the visitor’s first lead of the contest at 17-16 with 9:11 remaining in the first half.

Aiding that stretch of +8 scoring was junior guard Kris Wyche who delivered eight points on three shots including the go-ahead trifecta. Rogers picked up for Wyche moments later as the Mississippian scored nine of SAU’s next 13 points, which included seven straight and a conversion on an old-fashioned three-point play, as the Muleriders built a 30-23 lead just prior to the under-4 media timeout.

Rogers also produced a personal 7-0 run in the second half which gave the Muleriders its last lead of the night at 62-60 with 7:19 left.

Brooks added the final two buckets for the Muleriders in the first half as the Shreveport native entered the intermission a rebound shy of a double-double. SAU led 34-30 after East Central converted a driving shot at the horn to cap the first 20 minutes of action.

ECU dominated inside outscoring the Muleriders by 18 points in the paint in addition to grabbing ten more rebounds.

On Saturday, the Muleriders head south to Durant as a 3 p.m. tipoff with Southeastern Oklahoma State inside Bloomer Sullivan Arena wraps up the team’s first Oklahoma swing of the season.

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RUSSELLVILLE – For the first time in what has been an illustrious career as a Mulerider, Southern Arkansas senior forward Devante Brooks has been named the Great American Conference’s Men’s Basketball Player of the Week. The official announcement was made early Monday afternoon by the league and comes after Brooks delivered a pair of impressive performances this past weekend to help the Muleriders to two league wins.

A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Brooks became the second Mulerider in program history, the first in the program’s NCAA Era and the first player in GAC history to collect 1,000 rebounds which he reached with his ninth board of the night in Thursday’s 69-49 win over Northwestern Oklahoma. Double-doubles in both wins ran his season total to eight, improved his streak to seven and stood as the 36th and 37th such efforts of his career, respectively, which continues to build as the most in league history.

He averaged 17 points per game behind an overall shooting clip of 50% and he grabbed 15.5 rebounds per game. Brooks scored 21 points and added 15 rebounds to his season ledger against the Rangers and two nights later he followed that effort with 13 points and 16 rebounds in a 70-41 win over Southwestern Oklahoma.

For his career, Brooks has recorded 10+ rebounds in a game 37 times and has eclipsed ten points in 68 games.

Devante and the Muleriders prepare for their first Oklahoma road swing of the season as East Central (1/6) and Southeastern Oklahoma (1/8) await Southern Arkansas this weekend.

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ARKADELPHIA – A hot-shooting start to the 2021 campaign continued for Andy Sharpe‘s Muleriders on Saturday afternoon as Southern Arkansas returned to action inside the W.T. Watson Center for the first time in 322 days. For the second straight game, the Muleriders shot 50% from the floor and used a highly active effort on the defensive end to pick up a 69-58 win over Ouachita in Great American Conference action.

Southern Arkansas (2-0, 2-0 GAC) did not trail in the contest as it built an eight-point advantage through the game’s first 5:20 of play; a lead which grew to as much as 19 points in the first half, before resting at 15 points at the intermission. Ouachita would be unable to get the deficit under ten throughout the second half as the Muleriders held the Tigers to a 33.3% shooting clip from the floor, which included just four makes in 24 attempts from beyond-the-arc.

Aiding Southern Arkansas in the opening twenty minutes was 17 of their 19 points off turnovers. Two days after sinking 11 trifectas in the win over Henderson State, the Muleriders bottomed nine such shots as senior Aaron Lucas, the Peoples Bank Player of the Game, and junior newcomer Blake Rogers each connected on a trio of three-pointers, while junior Victory Ihrihri nailed a pair and sophomore Dodge Brown connected on his first of the season.

Devante Brooks, who had a trio of impressive slams in the win to push his personal dunk counter (#DevanteDunks) to four through two games, led SAU in scoring with 18 points and four rebounds. Lucas followed with 17 points, a game-high eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in a game-high 36 minutes. Rogers added 15 points, four assists, two rebounds and a steal. The Muleriders allowed just one Tiger in double figures as DJ Kane led OUA with 11 points.

Southern Arkansas remains home for a January 11 clash with league rival Arkansas-Monticello.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – For the second time in as many days, junior forward Devante Brooks delivered a double-double (25 pts., 17 reb.), while classmate point guard Aaron Lucas followed with 20 points, six rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals and the duo helped spur a strong second-half effort for the Muleriders on Saturday afternoon in the “Show Me State”. Southern Arkansas, which trailed 41-36 at the halftime break, scored a season-high 48 second-half points on a collective 47 percent (18-of-38) shooting from the floor and outscored Missouri S&T 26-4 inside in the final 20 minutes to claim an 83-76 win at the Doubletree/Houlihan’s Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Drury.

With The Honorable Asa Hutchinson, Governor of Arkansas, in attendance, the Muleriders overcame the slight deficit at the intermission by engineering a 25-9 surge in the first ten minutes of the second half to take a 61-50 lead with 10:03 remaining. However, the Miners would chip away and tie the game at 74 with 1:53 to play in the game following a 24-13 run from S&T.

Brooks’ final bucket of his 25-point evening came on the Muleriders’ next possession as he scored inside to give SAU a 76-74 lead with just under 90 seconds left in the game.

Defensively, Southern Arkansas would not allow another Miner bucket in the final 1:53 as Missouri S&T missed their final four shots, while Mulerider redshirt freshman Trent Ivy collected a steal and took it to the cylinder himself for a fastbreak bucket and a four-point SAU lead with 60 seconds to go. In the final minute, the Muleriders went 5-of-6 from the charity stripe as Lucas knocked down two free throws with junior guard Dru Smith adding the last three points on four attempts to seal the win.

Brooks’ hefty double-double came on 10-of-22 shooting and of his 17 boards, ten came on the offensive glass. He added two steals, an assist and a block. Following a 15 point, 13 rebound performance on Friday against Drury, Brooks was named to the five-man all-tournament team after averaging 20 points and 15 rebounds in 35 minutes per game.

Lucas’ stat line came behind a team-high 38 minutes on the floor. Sophomore combo Jalen Brooks scored 12 points and added four rebounds and a team-high three steals. Junior guard Trey Davis nearly put together a double-double effort with nine points and eight rebounds to go with a block and a steal.

SAU outrebounded Missouri S&T 48-30 and collected a dozen more offensive boards than the Miners. The Muleriders won the battle inside 44-20 and scored 13 more second-chance points than UMST, which included a 14-2 advantage in the second half.

The Muleriders return to the court next Saturday, Dec. 7, for a Great American Conference affair with Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia. Tip-off with the Tigers from inside Bill Vining Arena is set for 3 p.m.

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