The East Central University men's basketball team continues its five-game road trip in Arkadelphia, Ark., for two games.  The Tigers will face Henderson State, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. and then Ouachita Baptist, Dec. 5 at 3 p.m. in Great American Conference action.

Game Notes

The Broadcast
ECU's radio home for Tigers basketball in 2015-16 is Ada's KXFC, 105.5, FM 'The X-Factor'. Kenny Morrison returns to broadcast the games for his 19th season. Morrison, a 1987 ECU graduate, spent two seasons doing color prior to taking over the play-by-play duties during the 1997-98 season.  

The Coverage
Fans who can't be at the game can find links to live stats, live video (if available) and the KXFC radio broadcast on ECUTigers.com.  Go to the men's basketball schedule page. Fans can listen to the radio broadcast online or through the FREE KXFC App available in ITunes, Google Stores where apps are sold and www.kxfcradio.com.

Scouting Henderson State
The Reddies have had a slow start under first-year head coach Jimmy Elgas, going 0-5 overall and 0-2 in the GAC.  That has led to a -8.0 scoring and -7.2 rebounding for the year.  However, HSU is shooting .426 from the field and .436 from beyond the arc and allowing a .457 overall percentage and a .333 three-point percentage.

The Reddies have two players in double-digits in the scoring column.  Kevin Kozan leads the team with 14.4 points per game, while shooting .380 overall and .367 from beyond the arc.  Zydrunas Jurgutis adds 10.6 points per game and has a .581 overall shooting percentage and a .588 mark from three-point range.

The Series
After the Tigers won both meetings in 2014-15, the series with HSU is now knotted at nine games each.  The Reddies hold a slight 3-2 advantage in Arkadelphia and a 2-6 lead when playing as GAC opponents.

Scouting Ouachita Baptist
The purple and gold Tigers are 1-5 overall and 1-1 in the GAC, but they have yet to play a home game.  OBU's first home game will come against Southeastern (Thursday) before ECU comes to the gym.

Ouachita has a -4.8 scoring and -5.5 rebounding margin on the year, but is shooting strong at .451 overall and .421 from beyond the arc.  Their opponents are making 47 percent of their total shots and 36.5 percent of those from three-point range.  One of the key differences comes in free throws, where OBU is 91-of-118 and they have allowed a 131-of-175 mark.

Ouachita has two players that are in double digits in the scoring column and a third at 9.6 points per game.  Lakee Westbrook leads the way with 17.0 points per game and is shooting .476 from the field and .436 from beyond the arc.  Tirrell Brown adds 11.7 points and 4.7 boards per game and has a .508 shooting percentage.

The Series
ECU currently holds an 11-7 lead in the all-time series with OBU, including a 9-5 marking when playing a league opponents.  Ouachita does own a 5-3 lead when playing in Arkadelphia and won the last meeting there, 61-80 (2/14/15).

Free Throw Frenzy
With the rule changes in the NCAA this season it was expected that free-throw attempts would go up, but the Tigers and Dallas Baptist went a little higher than expected with almost 100 attempted between them.  ECU went 35-of-47 from the charity stripe, while DBU was 40-of-50, for 97 attempts.  The Tigers' Stirling Thomas made the most of his trips to the line, going 15-of-16 and scoring almost half of his 36 points for the game.

Early Signing
ECU announced the addition of one player to the 2016-17 roster during the early signing period in Camron Talley.

Talley comes to the Tigers from Rockwall-Heath High School in Rockwall, Texas.  He has been a starter for the Hawks since his freshman season and averaged 15 points, five rebounds and five assists per game as a junior.

Talley has been a standout since his freshman season, earning all-district first team honors all three seasons and averaging 14 points and 12.9 points per game in sophomore and freshman seasons, respectively.

Picked Near the Top
ECU was picked to finish second, out of 12 teams, in the 2015-16 GAC Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's head coaches.

The Tigers were a very close second to Harding, who was picked first.  The Bisons finished with 109 points and four first-place votes, while ECU had 107 points and three first-place votes.

Ouachita Baptist was next with 100 points and four first-place votes, while Arkansas Tech as picked fourth with 96 points and the final first-place vote.

Southwestern was fifth (74), Southern Nazarene sixth (69), Southern Arkansas seventh (67), Southeastern eighth (45), Arkansas-Monticello ninth (43), Henderson State 10th (36), Northwestern 11th (29) and Oklahoma Baptist 12th (17).

Starting Strong
ECU started the year by playing two back-to-back exhibition games at Oklahoma State and UTEP.  While, the Tigers fell in both meetings, they kept the score close for most of the games and only fell by 12 at UTEP.

Stirling Thomas led ECU in the two exhibitions with 12.5 points per game, while adding 3.5 boards.  Transfer Brett Cannon added 9.0 points per game, while freshman Ben Brown-White led the team with 8.5 rebounds per game.

Up Next
The Tigers will wrap up their road trip with games at Texas A&M-Commerce (Dec. 14/7:30 p.m.) and an exhibition game at UTSA (Dec. 16/Noon).