ALVA, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team opened up Great American Conference play on the road at Northwestern Oklahoma on Thursday night and suffered a 72-62 setback. In the loss, however,
Dessie McCarty and
Julie Wagner recorded double-doubles.
Wagner's double-double saw the senior score 20 points and haul in 11 rebounds. The 20 points were a career-high for Wagner who scored her points on an efficient 9-of-12 shooting overall. The double-double was Wagner's second-career while McCarty's was the first of her young career.
The freshman from Mount Vernon, Ark. scored 15 points and secured 10 rebounds. Both totals represented single-game highs for McCarty.
As far as game action went, Northwestern Oklahoma raced out to an early double-digit lead that was as large as 14 points about midway through the opening period. The Golden Suns were able to battle back and shaved off 10 of those points before ending the quarter down by seven, 23-16.
The second quarter was controlled mostly by NWOSU as they again grabbed a double-digit lead by the midway mark. This time, the Rangers were able to maintain that lead and went into the locker room leading by 10, 40-30.
The Golden Suns started to make some progress against the Rangers' lead in the third quarter and brought the deficit to a two-possession gap. That push continued into the fourth quarter and an 8-0 run over about a two-minute stretch brought the Golden Suns to within a bucket of the lead with just under five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, the Rangers would not allow Tech to get any closer and were able to again separate from the Golden Suns over the remainder of the game before ending with the 10-point margin of victory.
The Golden Suns will now prepare to bounce back with another road game on Saturday. That game will see the Golden Suns play at Southwestern Oklahoma. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
