Box Score ADA – The Kerr Activities Center was the setting for the match-up with the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Great American Conference men's basketball standings, with the East Central University men's basketball team falling to Southwestern Oklahoma State, 43-55.

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The Tigers (8-6, 5-3 GAC) were paced by senior Henry Pwono, who tallied his second double-double of the season.  Pwono garnered 10 points and 10 rebounds, while senior Colby Carr added a team-high 17 points.

ECU opened the first half with a 4-0 run, but the game remained close in the first 20 minutes.  The Tigers had built a four-point lead (12-8), with 15:13 left to play, when the Bulldogs (8-4, 5-1 GAC) used a 10-2 run, over the next seven minutes, to take a 14-18 lead of their own. 

The first half was a great defensive battle, with neither team scoring a field goal for a large portion of the stanza.  ECU tallied four free-throws from 15:55 until 6:14, while SWOSU added three points from the charity stripe from 11:55 to 5:07 without a field goal.

After both teams finished their field-goal draughts, the Bulldogs used a 7-4 run in the final five minutes of the half to take a 20-26 lead into the locker room.

The Tigers came out of the intermission with a renewed attitude and used a 7-0 run in the first six minutes to take a slight 27-26 advantage.  However, it was short lived, as the Bulldogs countered with a 10-0 run that gave the lead for good, with 11:30 left to play (27-36).

The rest of the half was a tight battle, with just 35 more points being scored.  ECU kept the disadvantage around 7-10 points for most of the half, with SWOSU earning the 43-55 win.

Both teams struggled to gain offensive momentum in the game, with the Tigers shooting just 29.8 percent from the floor and holding the Bulldogs to a .241 mark.  The key to the game came at the charity stripe, where SWOSU went 23-of-33 and ECU was 13-of-20.

The Tigers will wrap up a three-game home stand in their next outing, Thursday, Jan. 16 when Southern Nazarene comes to the Kerr Activities Center for a 7:30 p.m. tip.