Box Score RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — A big 29-point effort from Fatima Adams and a team effort on the defensive side helped the No. 24 Arkansas Tech women's basketball team get past Southern Nazarene 78-60 in Great American Conference play Saturday afternoon at Tucker Coliseum.

The Golden Suns (19-3, 14-2 GAC) didn't find their groove until about eight minutes into the contest, but once they did, they used a 30-14 run to close the first half and take command of the game, holding a double-digit lead over the Crimson Storm (7-16, 4-13 GAC) for all but 32 seconds of the second period. The win, coupled with Southeastern Oklahoma's win over Harding, puts the Suns back alone in first place in the GAC.

"I thought we played awesome today," coach Dave Wilbers said. "The first half, we go in at halftime with a 14-point lead and one turnover. Credit the players, because yesterday, we worked on a lot of passing, moving, cutting to go get the pass. We turned it over a few times in the second half, but fantastic job overall."

While not guarding each other, Adams and SNU's Aminata Fall seemed to have a back-and-forth contest going throughout the game. Adams' 29 points came on 12-of-22 shooting, while she added six rebounds and a steal. Fall also posted 29 points, adding 10 boards and three blocks, but turned the ball over eight times. Fall netted the first eight points of the game for the Storm, while Adams answered each time, with a layup making it 4-4 and a pair of free throws tying it up at 6-6.

An Anna Lea Little 3-pointer — one of three in the first half that helped her chip in with nine points and six rebounds for the game — to give the Golden Suns their first lead at 9-6 just over five minutes in. SNU climbed back into it after going down four, taking the lead 14-12 with 12:41 left in the half, but the second triple from Little handed the Suns the lead just 16 seconds later, and they would hold on the rest of the way. Four points from Adams and three each out of Little and Caroline Eubanks helped push that lead to 10 at 29-19 just six minutes later, and a 7-2 run — five more points coming from Eubanks — stretched the lead to 16 points with 1:12 left before intermission.

An 8-0 run by SNU early in the second half brought the lead back down to eight and 44-36, with Adams answering 16 seconds later with a lay-in to push the lead back to double digits. The Storm pulled back within eight with 13:01 to play, but once again, a quick response from Tech pushed the lead right back to 10, and it would only increase from there.  This time, it was Jacinda Myers-Sanders, who reached a whole new level in the second half, netting all 14 of her points and five of her team-high eight rebounds after the break.

The senior hit a layup at the 12:45 mark to make it 52-42, and over the game's final 12-plus minutes, she went 6-for-6 from the field, 2-for-3 at the line, hauled in four rebounds — including a pair on the offensive glass — and picked up one steal as the Tech lead kept growing, with the final 18-point advantage coming on three straight freebies from Adams in the final 1:09.

Eubanks posted 10 points and four rebounds for the Golden Suns, while Anissa Pounds added six points, three rebounds and tied a season high with seven assists. Tech shot 49.2 percent from the field while holding SNU to 40.0 percent, and only turned the ball over six times against the Storm's 17. The Suns picked up 36 points in the paint, got 14 off turnovers compared to just three for SNU, and won bench points 27-16.

"Anissa had some fantastic passes, great assists," Wilbers said. "They were guarding her, kind of faceguarding her, and took her shooting out of the game. It's hard to not get shots, but it opens up shots elsewhere. It's why Anna Lea got some shots, and it's why we got some good looks down low. I like the way we took what SNU gave us and did a good job with it."

Tech is back on the road for its next game, making its final Oklahoma road swing starting with East Central at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.