MONTICELLO, Ark. – The University of Arkansas at Monticello men's basketball team continued its impressive scoring with a 104-80 Great American Conference victory over Harding University on Thursday night at the Steelman Field House in Monticello, Arkansas. The Weevils had five players in double-figures.
 
KJ Lesure, Marcus Gilbert, Denzel McDuffey, Wanya King and Justin Slocum all finished in double-digits in the points category helping the Weevils to the win.
 
UAM shot 58.1 percent from the floor and 48.0 percent from downtown en route to the victory.
 
The Weevils actually got off to slow start with Harding getting an early five-point lead. At 18:27, Gilbert got the scoring started with a layup and then would hit a jumper after a pair of Bisons free throws to tie the game at seven. After the media timeout, Harding's Romio Harvey hit a jumper, but King responded with the team's first triple of the day to make it a 10-9 UAM advantage.
 
Following the three, UAM went on a nine-point run with a trio of three-pointers. Austin Hardy hit one from downtown, Gilbert followed with one of his own and Lesure then drilled one to make it a 19-9 advantage.
 
The Weevils continued their impressive scoring stretch as the half continued. Eventually, UAM got to its largest lead of the night at 26 points when Gilbert received a nifty pass from Lesure and hit the bucket to put UAM ahead, 49-26. Harding cut into the deficit a bit, but at the end of the first half, UAM led, 55-37.
 
In the second period, Harding kept the Weevil lead back under 20 early. Romio Harvey got to the line to put the lead back down to 16 points and later, Joel Polius hit one of his two free throws to bring it down to 15 points.
 
Lesure then responded with a driving layup, but it was Harding again cutting it back to 15. UAM would then go on a 9-6 run. McDuffey would hit a jumper just outside the paint, and later Gilbert hit a basket bringing the lead to 69-50. Following a Harding triple, McDuffey hit two free throws at the line and Lesure would nail a triple on a fastbreak getting the lead back to 21.
 
Lesure then got hot. He then responded again off a couple of Bisons scores with back-to-back threes making it 86-62.
 
The Bisons would battle back a bit in the final few minutes, but UAM kept up its impressive scoring with baskets from all over the scoresheet in Blakely Cobb and Keyon Craddock. UAM would go on to win the contest, 104-80.
 
Lesure finished with 26 points, eight assists and four rebounds, while Gilbert also had 20-plus points closing with 22, eight rebounds and three assists.
 
McDuffey was just one rebound shy of a double-double with 16 points and nine boards and King tallied 13 points, four rebounds and one assist.
 
Slocum rounded out UAM's double-digit scorers with 12 points, four boards and one assist.
 
With the win, UAM improves to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in GAC games, while Harding falls to 3-2 and 0-1 in league contests.
 
UP NEXT
UAM is back in action on Saturday when it travels to Arkadelphia, Arkansas to play Ouachita Baptist. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. following the women's game.