By Brian Ramsey
OBU Sports Information

ARKADELPHIA — The Ouachita Baptist University men’s basketball team opens the 2021-22 season this Wednesday, November 3 at home against Philander Smith.

The exhibition contest will tipoff at 7 p.m. at Bill Vining Arena. The Ouachita Sports Digital Network will broadcast the game live. Coverage links can be found at OBUtigers.com/coverage. There are no restrictions in place for fan attendance, and there will not be an admission charge for this game.

The Tigers have three returning starters coming back from last year’s team that went 5-12 in a COVID-19 shortened schedule.

Kendarious Smith enters his final season with the Tigers after entering the 1,000-point club last year. Smith has 1,096 points at the start of this season, which ranks 11th all-time at Ouachita. With his career scoring average of 11.4 points per game, he has a chance to break into the top five by the end of the season.

Other starters coming back include Marvin Williams-Dunn and Deaveon Bankston. Bankston was fourth on the team in scoring last year at 8.2 points per game, and led the squad with 5.3 rebounds per contest. Ma’Darius Hobson is back also for the Tigers. Hobson averaged 11.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, mostly coming off the bench.

Philander Smith is off to a 2-1 start to the season with wins over Arkansas Baptist College and Texas College, and most recently, a 59-56 loss to Louisiana College last Tuesday. The Panthers are led by Head Coach Todd Day, who was a first-round NBA draft pick in 1992 out of the University of Arkansas, where is still the all-time leading scorer. Day played eight seasons in the NBA for five different teams.

Ouachita plays Wednesday against the Panthers, and then takes a week off in preparation for a long trip north to take part in the Great American Conference-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference crossover challenge.