Strong league teams slow Bisons "In a year when the rest of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference appears to be at its strongest in basketball, the situation appears to be the same at Harding College" was the opening statement of the press release heralding the opening of the 1976-n season. Led by three returning starters supported by an aggressive junior college transfer postman and two promising sophomores who came on strong at the end of their freshman season, the Bisons were optimistic about improving on last year's fourth place finish in the AIC. The 71-68 loss to the perennially strong Ouachita Tigers in the opening conference game, however, dampened the optimism of Bison fans and proved to be "in nutshell" the story of the season. With the halftime score knotted 43-43, the Bisons missed a final shot that would have given them a70-69 victory with about two seconds on the clock and then fouled the Tiger who rebounded and who sank both ends of the one-and-one to give the Tigers a 71-~ victory. Whereas the Bisons had won the close games in 1975-76 to post an 11-7 conference record, they lost the close ones in 1976-n to achieve only a 5-13 Al C record·, Even though each of the top eight men on the squad turned in some outstanding performances and NAIA All-American Butch Gardner again led conference scoring for the third consecutive year, crucial turnovers and failure to hit free throws consistently proved the downfall of the Bisons. Playing brilliantly against the powerful Henderson State University 5 team that reached the finals of the 1976 NAIA tournament, the Bisons lost a cliff hanger only 78-n and left fans and players exhausted as the score see-sawed back and forth during the closing minutes. With two seconds left, Gardner, surrounded by Reddies, put up a desperation 20-foot jump shot that hit the rim and bounced away as the buzzer sounded. Near the middle of the second round of the double round robin of conference play, the Bisons lost overtime home games against the University of Central Arkansas and Hendrix College. The game against UCA was lost in the third overtime after four starters on each team had fouled out in a game that matched the conference record of 74 for most fouls called in a single game. The phenomenal shooting of two substitute Bear guards snatched the victory away from Harding in the third overtime after the Bisons had played exceptional basketball and received yeoman assistance from the bench. Following on the heels of conference championships in cross country and football for the Bisons, the losing season in basketball was painful to coaches, players, and fans, especially in view of the pre-season high expectations. Game after game the Bisons played outstanding ball only to have "the breaks" go against them, and games that should have been victories were chalked up as defeats. In a conference where most of the teams were very evenly matched, "the breaks" played a large role in the outcome of many games. BASKETBALL - 233
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