GAME DAY INFORMATION
ARKANSAS TECH GOLDEN SUNS 1-0 (0-0 GAC)	ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO COTTON BLOSSOMS 0-0 (0-0 GAC)
Thursday, January 7 | 5:30 p.m. Monticello, Ark. | Steelman Fieldhouse LIVE STATS | WATCH LIVE | LISTEN LIVE | ATU NOTES (PDF)

TIPPING OFF
With one game under their belt, the Arkansas Tech women's basketball team is set to begin its unprecedented 2020-21 season in earnest this Thursday as the Golden Suns take to the road to open up Great American Conference play at Arkansas-Monticello. Two days after that, the Golden Suns return home to open a three-game home stand that begins with a game against Henderson State. 

In the attempt to play as much of a season as possible, with regards to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the GAC announced back in mid-November that the 12-team league would temporarily split into divisions and feature an Eastern and Western Division. With the divisional play model, teams would be scheduled to face one another from their respective division four times to comprise a 20-game regular season. 

From there, a uniquely-formated GAC Tournament would take place, in which, for the first time ever, all 12 teams would qualify for the tournament. Additionally, all the games within the tournament would be played at the campus site of the highest-seeded team within that division in a given round. If both seeds are equal for the overall championship, a coin toss will determine the site of the game. 

The first step towards all of that begins with the aforementioned GAC-opener vs. UAM. The Golden Suns will enter the game 1-0 after easily beating Champion Christian 80-40 this past Saturday. 

Not once threatened in the game, the Golden Suns were able to get some quality minutes for the 10 available players as they all played at least 13 minutes. Along with the minutes of action, the Golden Suns were also able to get a balanced scoring attack with three players scoring in double figures led by transfer newcomer Ashlei Lopez's 21 points.

Not scoring in double figures, but still registering significant points was senior guard Jayana Sanders. Needing just five points to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career, Sanders did not score or even attempt a shot in the first half. Undeterred, Sanders reached the milestone in the third quarter and officially became the 29th Golden Sun to score at least 1,000 points for their career on a three-pointer. 

At some point this season, Sanders is likely to have a teammate join her in the 1,000-point club as Ke'Vonshaye Stackhouse, who did not play in the season-opener, is just 63 points shy of the milestone herself. 

In addition to the career scoring milestones achieved and on the horizon for the players, head coach Dave Wilbers is on the doorsteps of a major coaching milestone. The season-opening win for the Golden Suns against Champion Christian was Wilbers' 299th as a head coach. Now in his 14th season as a head coach, Wilbers has spent each of those years leading the Golden Suns. In his time as the head coach at Tech, Wilbers has kept the Golden Suns as perennial contenders in the GAC, the region and the nation, winning 20 or more games nine times, capturing six conference regular championships, five conference tournament championships and advancing to eight NCAA Regional Tournaments. 

SCOUTING THE COTTON BLOSSOMS 

Arkansas-Monticello enters their game against the Golden Suns officially with a 0-0 record. The Cotton Blossoms do have a game under their belt, but it does reflect in their win-loss record as they played Williams Baptist in an exhibition game this past Saturday. Had that game counted, however, the Cotton Blossoms would be 0-1 as they lost to Williams Baptist, 67-65. 

In the exhibition loss, the Cotton Blossoms had two players score in double figures with Mackenzie Tillman leading the way with 18 points. Kayla Bradley was next with 12 points. Both Bradley and Tillman are returners from a team that won 20 games and played for the GAC Tournament Championship after upending the Golden Suns in the tournament semifinals. 

The Cotton Blossoms are coached by Markell Cox, who is in his first season at UAM. Prior to coming to UAM, Cox was at Cincinnati Christian University for two seasons. 

SCOUTING THE REDDIES 

By the time that Henderson State faces off against Arkansas Tech on Saturday, the Reddies will have already played their first game of the season as they are set to open their year at home against Southern Arkansas. 

Heading into the season, the Reddies were picked to finish third in the GAC Eastern Division behind Tech. This year's team will be one of the youngest in the GAC as the Reddies have only two seniors on their roster and bring in five newcomers. The Reddies must also replace the production and prolific careers of All-GAC players, Hailey Estes and Pink Jones. Both Estes and Jones scored over 1,400 points in their careers for the Reddies. 

The Reddies, however, do have three players returning that averaged double figures last season. Leading the way among those is Karrington Whaley at 12.6 ppg last season. Maci Mains at 11.9 ppg and Lani Snowden at 10.2 round out the top returning scorers for the Reddies. 

The Reddies are coached by Jill Thomas, who is in her eighth season at Henderson. In her previous seven seasons, Thomas has totaled 104 wins and twice led the Reddies to at least 20 wins, doing so last year and in 2017-18.