RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. - The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team rocked the home crowd in Tucker Coliseum with a statement 76-50 win over Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday afternoon. Following their win, the Golden Suns advance to 8-4 overall on the season with a 6-2 record in Great American Conference play.
With their victory over Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday afternoon, the Golden Suns are now in a tie with the Bison at second-place in the conference standings.
The Golden Suns began the game firing on all cylinders on offense with a blistering 13-3 run that was capped off by a second chance layup from
Dana Thompson following her offensive rebound. From their hot start, things slowed down a bit for both sides for a good remainder of the quarter.
A layup inside by
Julie Wagner would give the Golden Suns a 15-10 advantage with just under three minutes remaining in the first quarter of action. The Bison would close out the quarter with a layup and a made three-pointer to tie the game at 15-15 at the end of the first quarter.
The three-pointer to tie the game at the end of the first would be the closest the Bison would come to sniffing a lead as the Golden Suns defense came into play and never allowed a lead change for the entire duration of the game.
Once again, the Golden Suns started hot on offense as
ClaraGrace Prater connected on a midrange jumper and
Kaley Shipman nailed a shot from beyond-the-arc to put Arkansas Tech up 20-15 in just the first 53 seconds of the quarter. Another long bomb from Shipman,off the assist by
Alex Hill, and a jumpshot in the paint by
Jalei Oglesby extended the lead out to double-digits at 27-17 over Oklahoma Baptist.
A few possessions later, Hill came away with a steal and gave it to Shipman at mid court who passed it ahead to Oglesby down low for the excellent finishing sequence at the rim, forcing the Bison to call a timeout with no answer for the Golden Suns offensive outbursts.
The Golden Suns continued to dominate their opponent for the remainder of the quarter, giving them a comfortable 40-26 lead heading into the halftime break. Arkansas Tech outscored Oklahoma Baptist in the second quarter 25-11. Oglesby led the team in scoring for the quarter dropping 11 total points.
Wasting no time, the Golden Suns went right to work to open the second half as both Thompson and Oglesby made their first buckets of the quarter. Following a few big offensive boards for Oglesby and Thompson, the Golden Suns would knock down yet another three ball this time from Hill off the assist from Thompson for the nice second chance bucket.
The Golden Suns smothered the Bison on the defensive side of the ball as well in the third quarter forcing them to miss 11 of their 17 total shots in the period. They also forced the Bison to miss every three-point shot they took in the quarter.
In the fourth and final quarter of play, the Golden Suns would keep up the defensive intensity and the high-volume of offensive output to close out the afternoon. Making her presence known in the final quarter of action was freshman
Hayleigh Wyrick who came in and scored seven unanswered points for Arkansas Tech within the opening two minutes. The Golden Suns would go on to outscore the Bison 19-8 in the fourth.
While the offense continued to synchronize at a high-level, the defense in the fourth was the best of the afternoon for the Golden Suns as the team held Oklahoma Baptist to just eight points on 2-of-17 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 from three-point territory.
The free throw line also served as an important factor for the Golden Suns against the Bison as they shot an excellent 81% (17-of-21) combined as a team for the game.
Individually, the Golden Suns were led by Oglesby who dropped a near double-double with 23 total points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field to go alongside nine rebounds. She also dished out two assists in the win over the Bison.
Following Oglesby was Thompson who put up 12 points on 60% (6-of-10) shooting from the floor. The Miami, Fla. native also collected nine boards, a block and a steal in her outing. Rounding out the leading scorers for the Golden Suns was Prater who scored 11 points and picked up four rebounds on the afternoon.
On defense, Hill led the charge coming away with a team-high four steals against Oklahoma Baptist.
The Golden Suns will be back in action next Thursday as they prepare to travel to Monticello, Ark. to face Arkansas-Monticello. The game against the Cotton Blossoms is set for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off on Thursday evening,
