Longview, Texas-The trio of Ronnie Dodd, Andrew Cummings and Bryton Flint scored a combined 52 points to lead the Eagles to a key 74-63 American Southwest Conference win over LeTourneau University Thursday.
To qualify for the playoffs, Ozarks (9-15, 6-13 ASC) would need to win their game against Texas-Tyler (7-16, 6-13 ASC) Saturday and Mississippi College (8-14, 6-12 ASC) would need to lose at least one of their two remaining games.
Against LeTourneau (4-20, 3-16 ASC), Ozarks led 28-24 at the half behind Dodd’s 11 points. Neither team was able to establish momentum in the first half as LeTourneau answered each Ozarks’ basket. The Eagles had an outstanding shooting performance in the second half, hitting 17-of-28 (60%) from the field, including all five of their three-point shots. Flint sparked Ozarks with three three-pointers and 13 points in the second half. With Ozarks leading 47-44 at the 11:22 mark of the half, Dodd and Flint took over. Dodd hit a jumper and Flint hit back-to-back three-pointers to put Ozarks ahead 55-44. Dodd then scored back-to-back shots of his own to give the Eagles a 13-point advantage. LeTourneau was unable to recover from that run and never made a legitimate threat the rest of the way. It was Cummings that jumpstarted Ozarks in the second half with a pair of shots around the 12-minute mark.
Dodd went 10-of-18 from the field and scored 21 points to lead Ozarks. Cummings went 6-of-8 from the floor and finished with 16 points. Flint ended the game hitting five of his eight shots for 15 points.
Topics: Athletics