SEARCY -- Harding junior Braden Eggleston made a go-ahead layup with 53 seconds remaining, and the Bisons finished off Ouachita Baptist 77-73 Saturday in Great American Conference action at Rhodes-Reaves Field House.
Harding (1-12, 1-7) led by as many as 14 points in the second half, but Ouachita Baptist (5-8, 3-5) retook the lead 73-72 with 1:11 left on two Matt Stanley free throws. Eggleston's layup with 53 seconds left put the Bisons ahead to stay.
On Ouachita's next trip, Eggleston drew a charging foul from Stanley to give the ball back to Harding. The Bisons made three free throws down the stretch for the win.
Harding's win snapped a streak of five straight defeats to Ouachita. The Bisons last defeated the Tigers in Searcy in 2015. The Tigers have now lost six straight road games.
Ouachita scored the first nine points of the game and opened on a 12-3 run, but an 8-0 Harding run cut the Ouachita advantage to 22-20 and two Filip Medjo free throws tied the game at 24-24 with 8:34 left in the first half.
Reggie Anthony's layup at 8:08 gave Harding its first lead. Tim Wagner's 3-pointer from the right wing extended the lead, pushing Harding's run to 17-2 over a five-minute stretch.
Ouachita went cold from the field during a nine-minute stretch of the first half. From the 11:04 mark until a Mahlon Martin jumper on the left baseline with 2:04 left, the Tigers made only one other shot, a 3-pointer by Martin. The Tigers shot only 27 percent, 8 of 30, in the half. Ouachita had eight offensive rebounds and outscored Harding 14-4 on second-chance points.
Harding closed the half on a 7-0 run with Anthony hitting a layup at buzzer to give the Bisons a 41-32 halftime lead, its largest of the season. Harding shot 54 percent, 13 of 24, and made 5 of 11 3-pointers.
The lead grew to 14 points at 50-36 on Medjo's free-throw line jumper with 15:58 left. Ouachita cut the lead back to four points at 56-52 on two free throws by Jontavis Willis with 11:51 left. A 3-pointer by Willis at 6:22 trimmed the Harding lead to 64-61, and Kendarious Smith made a putback layup to pull Ouachita to within 69-67.
Tim Wagner made six 3-pointers and led Harding with 22 points and a team-high five assists. Martin led Ouachita with 17 points and Willis had 16.
Ouachita shot only 38 percent, 21 of 55, for the game, but made 24 of 27 free throws, 88.9 percent. Harding shot 47 percent, 26 of 55, and made nine 3-pointers.
Harding returns to action Monday at home against Arkansas Tech (10-4, 4-4) before a road matchup on Thursday at Henderson State (7-7, 2-6). The Tigers will host the Reddies at Bill Vining Arena Tuesday in the first Battle of the Ravine matchup of the basketball season.
Sports on 01/15/2018