RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team dropped their first conference game of the season at home on Saturday afternoon against Ouachita Baptist, losing to the Tigers by a score of 63-57.
At the start of the game, the Golden Suns looked sharp on both ends of the floor and raced out to a 17-5 lead through the first quarter. In that opening period, the Golden Suns held Ouachita to just 17% shooting overall (2-of-12) while Tech shot it at a clip of 40% overall on their end (6-of-15).
Early in the second quarter, the Golden Suns swelled their lead as large as 16 points, 21-5, with 6:29 left on the clock. Ouachita then found some footing as they answered right back with their first made three-pointer of the game.
Over the course of the next four or so minutes of action, the Tigers cut the deficit down to single digits and trailed by eight, 24-16, at the 1:35 mark. Moments later, Tech's
Dana Thompson scored a layup with 47 seconds left to put the Golden Suns up by 10, a margin that they would head into halftime with.
In the third quarter, the Golden Suns were unable to really break away from the Tigers, but Tech still held a double-digit lead throughout the first half of the period. Trailing by 10 points with just under three minutes left in the quarter, the Tigers closed out the third on a 7-0 run to pull to within three points, 41-38.
That surge continued for Ouachita and with the first two baskets of the fourth quarter, they suddenly found themselves in the lead, 42-41, at the 7:47 mark.
Over the next four minutes of action, the score would be tied on four occasions and the lead changed hands four times. Unfortunately, the last of those lead changes was in favor of Ouachita at the 3:45 mark and the Tigers would not relinquish the lead the rest of the way out.
The Golden Suns were able to get within two points of the lead on two occasions with the final time coming at the 50-second mark, but clutch free throw shooting by Ouachita down the stretch sealed the win for the Tigers.
Pacious McDaniel led the team in scoring with 17 points. She was 5-of-10 overall from the floor and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. The Golden Suns had two others score in double figures with Thompson and
Hayleigh Wyrick both scoring 10 points. Thompson was one rebound shy of a double-double as she hauled in a team-high nine rebounds.
The Golden Suns will now prepare to take a brief pause from conference play as they remain at home this coming Tuesday and will take on Maryville in a non-conference game. The game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. tip-off.
