Norchad Omier tallied his fourth straight double-double on Sunday afternoon, leading Arkansas State to a 90-50 victory over Champion Christian at First National Bank Arena.
Omier tallied a team-high 14 points and 16 rebounds in just 20 minutes to become the first A-State player since Anthony Livingston in 2014-15 with four straight double-doubles. The Red Wolves (3-4) shot 50.8 percent from the field (44.4 percent from three-point range) en route to the dominant victory over the Tigers.
A-State outrebounded Champion Christian 44-31 behind Omier’s 16 boards. Two other Red Wolves scored in double figures, as Keyon Wesley scored 12 with five rebounds while Malcolm Farrington knocked down four threes to record a career-high 12 points.
The Red Wolves shared the ball well, dishing out 20 assists on its 33 field goals while also limited turnovers, only allowing 10 on the day. All 14 players saw action and recorded a statistic, with 13 players factoring into the scoring column.
After Champion Christian scored first to lead 3-0, A-State went on a 10-0 run to take the lead for good, with Christian Willis accounting for six of those points with a pair of treys. The Red Wolves’ lead grew to 22-9 after a layup by Marquis Eaton with 11:49 to go in the first half.
A-State’s largest lead of the half came when back-to-back layups by Caleb London made it 42-18. The Tigers scored the last field goal of the half, giving the Scarlet and Black a comfortable 42-20 lead at halftime.
The Tigers trimmed the deficit down to 23 early in the second half, but A-State scored 10 unanswered to push its lead out to 59-26 with 13:12 to go. Champion would not get cut the lead to less than 30 for the rest of the day, as the Red Wolves’ largest lead of the day came with 1:37 remaining on a two-handed slam by Lazar Grbovic. The Tigers picked up a field goal with 21 seconds left to end the day.
A-State has concluded non-conference play with the victory on Sunday. The Red Wolves’ next test marks the start of Sun Belt Conference play, traveling to Monroe, La., to face ULM for a two-game set. Tip-off on Friday, January 1, is slated for 6:00 p.m. on ESPN+ and the radio broadcast can be heard on 107.9 KFIN.