ADA, Okla. – A 20-point, 14-rebound effort by Fatima Adams and a 16-point performance by Anissa Pounds was not enough for the No. 20 Arkansas Tech Golden Suns basketball team (19-4, 14-3 Great American Conference) to overcome an early streak of hot shooting by East Central (15-8, 11-6 GAC), as the Golden Suns fell 66-56 to the Tigers on Thursday at the Kerr Activities Center.

The first few minutes were back-and-forth, with five ties and six lead changes over the first eight minutes.

However, with the Golden Suns leading by two with 12:06 to play, the Tigers used a 16-5 run to take a nine-point (25-16) lead with 7:08 to play in the opening half. ECU stretched its lead into double digits and carried a 10-point (33-23) lead into the half.

The two teams played relatively even basketball over the first five minutes of the second half, with ECU's lead moving to as many as 11 (40-29), but Tech used a 9-0 run to cut the Tigers' lead to two points (40-38) with 12:20 to play.

The Tigers answered with a quick 3-pointer and stretched their lead to seven (45-38) with 9:56 remaining. Tech used another run, scoring the next six points of the game to pull to within one (45-44) with 7:02 to play before ECU answered again with another quick bucket to stretch the lead to three.

Adams hit a pair of free throws to once again pull Tech to within one (47-46) with 6:11 remaining, but ECU went on an 11-2 run to push the lead back into the double digits (58-48) with 2:46 to play, and would stretch their lead out to as many as 13 points in the final minutes of play.

ECU held a 39-37 rebounding advantage, and outshot the Golden Suns 40.8 to 37.9 percent. The Tigers made the most of their 31 trips to the free-throw line, converting on 21 attempts while the Golden Suns were 9-of-15.

Arkansas Tech concludes its Oklahoma road swing with a 1 p.m. contest Saturday at Southeastern Oklahoma. For live video, audio, and statistics visit www.arkansastechsports.com.

-FIGHTON-