Box Score
SEARCY – Harding suffered its coldest shooting night of the season Monday and fell 52-46 to West Alabama at the Rhodes Field House. It was the final game of the Bisons’ four-game homestand. Harding heads to Texas for its next two games, beginning Friday at Incarnate Word.
Harding (4-1) was looking to win its first five games of the season for the first time since 2002, but shot only 34 percent from the field. Senior Kevin Brown led Harding with 12 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three blocks.
West Alabama (4-2) snapped a two-game losing streak against Gulf South Conference West Division foes and weathered two long scoring droughts of its own.
The Tigers led 25-13 on a Jason Swanson layup with 7:26 left in the first half, but did not score another field goal before halftime. The Bisons were only able to cut the lead to six and trailed 27-21 at halftime.
West Alabama extended the lead to 14 points at 35-21 on an Alquan Mendenhall three-pointer with 17:13 left in the game, but again the Tigers went cold, going for more than eight minutes before their next field goal. But again, Harding had trouble closing the gap and still trailed 39-31 when Richard Sirju ended cold spell with a three-pointer.
Harding never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
Sirju, a senior transfer from Utah State, led all scorers with 19 points. He made 5-of-6 three-pointers. Swanson added 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Harding connected on only 16-of-47 shots on the night and shot 5-of-19 from three-point range.