ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - Following their win at home over Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday to pick up their first Great American Conference win of the season, the Arkansas Tech women's basketball team continues their success in conference play with an 80-77 overtime win on the road against Ouachita Baptist. The Golden Suns move to 4-2 overall and advance to 2-0 in GAC play.
A steal by
Hayleigh Wyrick led to a pass up the floor to
Jalei Oglesby for a quick two-point jumper for the first basket of the game for Arkansas Tech. Ouachita responded with a three-pointer to take an early 3-2 lead in the first quarter. Oglesby collected an offensive board, following a missed shot, and pulled up to score her second basket of the afternoon for Arkansas Tech.
From there, the Tigers began to pull ahead connecting on a three ball as well as a layup to put them ahead 8-4 early in the matchup. The Tigers would lead the remainder of the opening quarter and finish the quarter off with another three-pointer to take a 16-11 lead over the Golden Suns into the second quarter of play.
Ouachita Baptist began the second quarter with a few more buckets, before the Golden Suns would find some offensive rhythm as Wyrick would make a pair of shots,alongside Claragrace Prater who would get a mid-range jumper to fall to tie the game at 20-20 with 4:36 left to play in the first half of action.
The Tigers kept getting their three-point shots to fall at a high rate as they pulled away from the Golden Suns once again to take a 37-32 lead into the halftime break.
The turning point of the game came in the third quarter from a steal by
Kaley Shipman that she took down the court and pulled up to sink a two-point basket. On the next possession, Shipman once again came up with another huge basket as she knocked down the triple from beyond-the-arc to to cut the Tiger lead down to just two points at 44-42 with 6:30 left to play in the third.
Ouachita Baptist continued to hit some three's, but the Golden Suns wouldn't let it affect their play on offense as Oglesby and
Marta Duda hit a pair of jumpers in the paint, while
Alex Hill splashed a three and converted a layup inside the paint on a fastbreak following a steal by Duda to give the Golden Suns a 51-50 lead in the third quarter of play.
The Golden Suns made the final shot of the third quarter from a jumpshot inside by Oglesby to give them a 56-54 lead heading into the fourth quarter of play.
Oglesby would continue her excellent scoring performance with a layup off the glass to start the fourth quarter effort by the Golden Suns. The Tigers would strike back with back-to-back layups to tie the game at 58 all. A three-point basket and a layup would give Ouachita a 61-58 lead on a 9-0 run to start their scoring in the fourth. A three-pointer by Shipman and a two-point shot from Oglesby would put the Golden suns back in position down just two at 63-65 with 5:22 left to play. Hill would make two free throws on two trips to the line to keep Tech in position, while the defense came up with big stops down the stretch of the game forcing turnovers and missed shots.
Hill came up with a huge steal with just over two minutes left to play that led to a pass across the court to Wyrick who sunk the layup on the fastbreak to tie the game at 67-67. The Tigers would find a bucket with 1:03 left to take the lead, but
Dana Thompson hit the biggest shot of the afternoon for the Golden Suns as she made a layup inside after collecting the offensive board following a miss to tie the game at 69-69 and send it to overtime.
The Golden Suns took control of the game in the overtime period as a layup from Thompson and a two-pointer form Oglesby put them up by three at 75-72 to give them the early advantage. A layup from Hill would extend the lead out to 77-72 to put Arkansas Tech in the drivers seat with just 2:18 remaining on the clock.
Ouachita got a layup to fall to try and close the gap, but Oglesby nailed another two-pointer to make it a 79-74 lead. The Tigers still weren't backing down yet, however, as they managed to connect on a three-pointer to make it just a two point game with 53 seconds left. The Golden Suns would hold on though with solid defense down the stretch and smart play as well as a made free throw by
Claudia Bridges to hold on and win the wild overtime finish on the road and pick up their second GAC win of the season.
Leading the way for the Golden Suns was Oglesby with an incredible offensive display as she put up a season-high 26 points on 11-of-21 shooting from field goal range. She also collected nine rebounds, two assists and three steals against the Tigers. Following Oglesby was Hill with her season-high in points putting up 19 on a fantastic 70% (7-of-10) shooting effort, while also staying active in the passing lanes with four total steals.
Wyrick and Shipman also hit double figures in scoring for Arkansas Tech with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Wyrick, alongside Hill, picked up four steals in her outing against the Tigers. Thompson provided a nice lift on the rebounding effort by the Golden Suns with a team-high 12 boards, six of which were offensive, to go alongside six points in the game.
The Golden Suns will get the next week off before their next outing, which will be a home game against Henderson State on Monday, December 12. The game against the Reddies is set for a 3 p.m. tip-off in Tucker Coliseum.
