ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team fell to Henderson State 67-85 on the road in Arkadelphia on Thursday evening. Following the game, the Golden Suns are 13-12 overall, with an 11-10 record against Great American Conference opponents.
The Golden Suns opened the game going bucket-for-bucket against the Reddies as
Jalei Oglesby and
Dana Thompson made the first few buckets for Tech. Henderson State would pull out to an early 9-4 lead, but the Golden Suns would fight back as a layup by Oglesby and a three-point basket by
Kaley Shipman got the Golden Suns back to within one point down 15-16 with just over minutes to play in the opening quarter of action.
Over the rest of the quarter, the Golden Suns would find three points at the free throw line from Oglesby and
Hayleigh Wyrick and Oglesby would score the final bucket of the quarter on a layup as they headed into the second quarter of play down 20-27.
To begin the second quarter, the Golden Suns came out firing on all cylinders offensively as they put together a strong 13-2 run to take the lead 33-29 with 5:47 left in the first half. The Golden Suns defense held the Reddies to just two points over the first five minutes of the second quarter.
Arkansas Tech would push their lead out to six with layups from Wyrick and Oglesby as well as a triple from beyond-the-arc by
Claudia Bridges to make it a 40-34 lead. In the final minutes of the first half, the Reddies would find their way back on offense and a last second three-pointer gave Henderson State the narrow 43-42 edge over the Golden Suns heading into the halftime break.
In the second half, the Golden Suns found it tough to find a consistent offensive rhythm as a team. Olgesby and
Alex Hill would do their best to try and knock down shots for the Golden Suns in the second half, but they would be outscored 25-42 by Henderson State in that second half and would ultimately fall 67-85.
Individually, the Golden Suns had three players hit double figures in scoring and were led by a double-double from Oglesby who put up 23 points and 14 points, while hitting 10-of-19 of her shots from field goal range. Hill dropped 15 points and also added four rebounds, two assists and two steals against the Reddies. Closing out the list of double figure scorers for the Golden Suns was Shipman who scored 10 points and collected a team-high three assists in the game.
On the boards, Thompson did an excellent job for Arkansas Tech grabbing a season-high 17 rebounds for the Golden Suns against Henderson State.
The Golden Suns will play their final game of the 2022-23 regular season on Saturday afternoon as they host Southern Arkansas on Senior Day. The game against the Muleriders is set for a 1 p.m. tip-off on Saturday afternoon in Tucker Coliseum.
