JONESBORO, Ark. (2/10/24) – Five players scored in double figures on Saturday afternoon, as a hot-shooting Arkansas State men's basketball team shot a season-best 63.8 percent in a 100-87 over Ohio inside First National Bank Arena.
The Red Wolves (11-14) eclipsed the century mark for the third time this season en route to the MAC-SBC Challenge triumph over the Bobcats (13-11). In addition to its blistering field-goal clip, which was its best since 2011, A-State also hit 11-of-22 from 3-point range and scored a season-high 52 points in the paint.
Taryn Todd led A-State's offensive attack with a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds off the bench. The performance was his fourth 20-point performance of the year, coming on 8-of-13 shooting and 4-for-5 at the charity stripe.
Derrian Ford added 19 points on 8-of-12 with four rebounds and four assists, while Izaiyah Nelson had a big second half with 17 points. Dyondre Dominguez scored 16 points on 4-of-6 from deep and Julian Lual hit three treys in an 11-point outing.
Jaylin Hunter led five Bobcats in double figures with 20 points, helping Ohio shoot 51.6 percent (32-62) from the field and 46.4 percent (13-28) from the perimeter.
Ohio's Aidan Hadaway scored the game's first six points, but Ford answered with seven of his own to give A-State its first lead of the game. The teams traded leads until the Bobcats went on a 9-0 run on treys by Ajay Sheldon (17 points) and Ike Cornish (8 points) to take a 27-18 lead – their largest and final lead of the day.
Todd sparked a 15-0 run that moved A-State back ahead for good at 33-27 with 6 minutes remaining in the half. After Ohio trimmed the deficit back down to four, the Red Wolves ended the half on an 8-0 run and held the visitors scoreless over the final 2 minutes, 54 seconds to take a 51-39 lead at the half.
A-State continued to up its lead after intermission, leading by 15 after a Nelson dunk forced the Bobcats to use a timeout. Nelson later hit from the perimeter with 12:56 left in the affair, pushing the Scarlet and Black's lead to 71-53. The Red Wolves' largest lead of the day came when a Nelson score made it a 23-point game (82-59) with 9:17 to play.
Ohio pulled to within nine with 2 minutes to play, but would not score from the field for the final 2:03 as A-State ended the contest on a 6-2 run.
NEXT UP
The Red Wolves return to the road to resume conference play on Thursday, taking on Troy. Tip-off against the Trojans inside Trojan Arena is set for 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN Plus while the radio broadcast can be heard across the EAB Red Wolves Sports Network as well as the A-State Athletics mobile app.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For the latest on the A-State men's basketball program, follow @AStateMB on Twitter/X and @astatemb on Instagram, while also liking the team's Facebook page at Facebook.com/AStateMB.
