RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team had the momentum of their upset win over nationally-ranked Northwestern Oklahoma on Thursday night halted by Southwestern Oklahoma on Saturday as the Bulldogs beat Tech in a low-scoring affair, 55-48.
Neither team got off to the start they would have liked in the first quarter with each scoring just six points. The second quarter, however, showed some signs of both teams finding their rhythms as each improved their shooting percentage by at least 20% from the first quarter.
SWOSU ended up having a slightly more productive second quarter and closed out the final two minutes of the half on a mini 6-0 scoring run that gave them a five-point lead at the break, 25-20.
In the third quarter, SWOSU was able to maintain a lead throughout and gained a lead as large as eight points with 1:15 left in the period. The Golden Suns were able to cut the deficit down to six before the end of the third quarter on a layup by
Shelly Butler.
The Bulldogs then continued to keep the Golden Suns at bay while also building up their lead throughout the fourth quarter. By the 9:01 mark of the fourth, SWOSU had gained a double-digit lead and then led by as many as 15 at the 6:05 mark.
Trailing by a dozen with just over a minute to go, the Golden Suns started to comeback and with right at 20 seconds left had cut the SWOSU lead down to five points to make it a two-possession game. Unfortunately, there would not be enough time left on the clock to get any closer as SWOSU got an insurance bucket with just over 10 seconds left to gain a three-possession lead, 55-48.
In terms of stats, the Golden Suns had just one player score in double figures as
ClaraGrace Prater went for 17 points. It was the third-straight game that Prater has scored in double figures and the 17-points against SWOSU are a career-high.
Alex Hill was next in scoring with eight points while
Maisa Marcal and
Shelly Butler added six points apiece.
The Golden Suns will now prepare for another week of home games next week starting first with a Thursday night contest against nationally-ranked Harding. Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. from inside Tucker Coliseum.
