RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. - The Arkansas Tech Women's Basketball team fights a tough battle down the stretch but falls at home 56-59 against Southern Nazarene. The Golden Suns move to 12-9 overall with a 9-8 record against Great American Conference Opponents.
Leading the charge for the Golden Suns was
Kaley Shipman with 14 points, four rebounds, two assists, a block and three steals.
Tori Lasker followed Shipman with 13 points, five rebounds and a steal. Closing out the leading scorers for the Golden Suns was forward
Nikki Metcalfe with 12 points and five rebounds. Metcalfe provided an excellent boost on the defensive end of the court for the Golden Suns blocking six shots.
The Crimson Storm started the game strong with a quick 5-0 lead after a layup and two successful trips to the line. A steal by Lasker led to a made fastbreak jumper also by the senior guard to give Arkansas Tech their first points of the game. With Southern Nazarene still leading 7-2 with 7:04 left in the first a pair of layups from Shipman and Lasker cut the five point deficit to just one point. A jumper from Lopez would secure the first lead of the game for the Golden Suns at 8-7, before the Crimson Storm took it right back with a three pointer. Southern Nazarene would close the first quarter on a 6-4 run to keep Tech at bay as they led 16-12 heading into the second quarter of play.
Both sides got their first point of the second quarter from the line going 1-2. The Golden Suns still found themselves in a 15-19 hole as the second quarter continued, but a layup from Shipman and a three point play from Lopez after converting the and one opportunity put them back on top of the Crimson Storm 20-19 with 5:08 remaining in the first half. Arkansas Tech managed to get a couple quick buckets from Shipman and Lasker to head into the break with a 24-20 lead over Southern Nazarene.
The Golden Suns solid free throw shooting showed as the first seven points of the second half scored by the team came from the line as they still led the Crimson Storm 31-25. Following a miss by Southern Nazarene Freshman guard
Alex Hill dished a nice pass on the fastbreak down low to Metcalfe for a strong and easy layup inside. A steal by Shipman with 3:17 left in the third  quarter led to another solid pass in the paint to Sanders who got the strong inside layup to fall giving the Golden Suns a 39-21 lead. Southern Nazarene got the only three of the game to fall in the winding minutes of the third to cut the Tech lead to just two, but the last bucket would from Lasker with a layup to give Arkansas Tech a 41-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Metcalfe and Shipman got things started in the final quarter of play with a pair layups. From here both sides went shot for shot with Southern Nazarene slowly clawing their way back into the game. A foul by Shipman with 4:40 left in the game sent the Crimson Storm to the line where the hit both to tie the game at 49-49. Southern Nazarene got the edge they needed to pull out the comeback holding Tech to just five points in the final minutes of the fourth quarter and outscoring them 10-5 in those minutes to get the win over Tech.
The Golden Suns will return to Tucker Coliseum on Monday, February 14 to take on Arkansas-Monticello in a makeup game. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday night.
