CLEVELAND, Miss. – The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team did something that they have not done since back in 2003 on Tuesday afternoon, and that's win a game against Delta State on the road, doing so by a score of 58-43.
Snapping that drought was a remarkably stout defensive effort by the Golden Suns as they held the Lady Statesmen to just 24% shooting overall from the floor (14-of-58) for the game and 2-of-19 (10.5%) from the three-point line. The Golden Suns also forced the Lady Statesmen to turn the ball over 15 times and turned that into 18 points on their end of the floor.
The first quarter of the game was slow going for both teams offensively as they only combined for nine made field goals. The Golden Suns would end the first quarter with a 12-9 lead as they closed out the final 3:45 of the period on a 7-0 that erased a four-point deficit.
That closing run carried over into the second quarter for the Golden Suns as they opened that period on a 10-0 run over the first two minutes. Tech would continue to have success in the quarter and began to pull away, pushing their lead out as much as 20 points before going to the break with a 14-point lead, 34-20.
In the second half, the Lady Statesmen had one surge in them and it came in the third quarter. Trailing by 14 points with 5:48 to go in the quarter, the Lady Statesmen went on a 7-0 run over the next minute or so of action to cut that deficit in half. That would be as close as Delta would get, however, as the Golden Suns scored the final five points of the period to push their lead back up to double-digits.
The Golden Suns were able to maintain a comfortable lead over the Lady Statesmen throughout the fourth quarter and eventually cruised to the 15-point win, 58-43.
Leading the Golden Suns in scoring against Delta was Oliva Jones as she scored 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting overall, 4-of-8 from three-point range and 4-of-5 from the free throw line. Freshman
AbbiGrace Cunningham was next in scoring with 13 points.
The Golden Suns will now have a bit of time before their next game as they take on Pittsburg State on the road on Wednesday, November 27. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
