MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Playing their first game in 16 days, the No. 25-ranked Arkansas Tech women's basketball team returned to the court and continued their winnings ways Saturday afternoon on the road at Southern Arkansas, who incidentally was the Golden Suns' most-recent opponent.
 
With a little bit of rust to already needed to be shaken off due to the downtime, the Golden Suns (6-0, 5-0 GAC) also had to do so against the frenetic, unrelenting pace that SAU has become synonymous with over the last two seasons.
 
Initially, that combination of factors led to the Golden Suns having to play from behind for much of the first half. After holding minimal leads throughout the first quarter, the Golden Suns trailed by three points heading into the second quarter.
 
At the 8:34 mark of the second quarter, the Lady Muleriders (1-4, 1-4 GAC) grew their lead out to seven points, 21-14. About three minutes of game time later, that remained the margin, but the Golden Suns proceeded to go on an 8-0 run to grab a one-point lead, 26-25 at the 3:17 mark. That lead would last a matter of seconds, however, as the Lady Muleriders knocked down a three-pointer on their ensuing possession.
 
That three-pointer then was the spark of a 10-0 scoring run for SAU as the Lady Muleriders pushed their lead to nine points, 35-26, with 1:47 left in the first half. With 1:11 to go, the Golden Suns broke the SAU run on a layup by Anna Myers, but another quick bucket by SAU sent Tech to the locker room down by nine points, 37-28.
 
Through the first two and a half minutes out of the break, the Golden Suns struggled on the offensive end, turning the ball over on each of their first five possessions. Despite that, SAU was not able to take advantage on the scoreboard as they missed their first six shots.
 
At the 8:00 mark of the third quarter, SAU finally broke the scoring in the period, and in the process gained their largest lead of the game, 11 points. Thirty seconds of game action later, the Golden Suns ended their scoring drought on a pair of made free throws by Jayana Sanders.
 
Sanders would then go on a personal 7-0 run that at the end, cut the Golden Suns' deficit down to six, 41-35, with 6:17 left in the third quarter.
 
With 3:17 to go in the third, the Golden Suns knotted the game at 46-all. Once more, SAU responded right away on their next trip down the court to stay in front. Following a split trip to the line by Kaley Shipman that pulled the Golden Suns to within a point, Hannah Villines came away with a steal on the defensive end and proceeded to take it coast-to-coast to give the Golden Suns a one-point lead, 49-48, with 2:25 to play.
 
The Golden Suns would go on to take a four-point lead into the fourth quarter.
 
In the fourth quarter, the Golden Suns started to gain control of the game and led by as much as eight points with 7:36 to play. The Lady Muleriders, however, responded with a trio of three-pointers over the next minute of action that trimmed Tech's lead to a point with 6:38 to play.
 
Not long after that, the Lady Muleriders swung the advantage in their favor by a point.
 
From there, play was close between the two teams with a total of five lead changes and two tied scores. The last of the lead changes went in favor of the Golden Suns and came at the 4:10 mark on a Fastbreak layup by Kaley Shipman.
 
Thanks to a perfect 4-of-4 effort from the free throw line over the final 26 seconds of game time, the Golden Suns went on to make it a seven-point victory.
 
Statistically, the Golden Suns shot nearly 50% overall from the floor (31-of-63), but struggled from long-range, going just 2-of-12. They were, however, solid from the charity stripe and were 18-of-24. All but one of those makes from the free throw line came in the second half as the Golden Suns aggressively attacked the basket over the final 20 minutes.
 
Individually, four Golden Suns scored in double figures with Sanders leading the way with 20 points. Following Sanders in scoring was Jalei Oglesby as she poured in 18 points off the bench. Shipman was next with 12 points and Villines rounded out double-figure scoring with 10 points.
 
In addition to her 20 points, Sanders narrowly missed out on a triple-double as she had nine rebounds and nine assists.
 
The Golden Suns will now prepare for a home game on Thursday night against Henderson State. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
 
A reminder, the GAC Council of Presidents recently approved the creation of a limited guest list for basketball games. That limited guest list will allow student-athletes and non-student coaching staff to invite up to four guests to attend home games. Those not invited on the guest list will not be allowed to attend the game in person.