SHAWNEE, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team had their 2023-24 season come to an end on Friday night in the quarterfinal round of the Great American Conference Tournament as they lost to No. 4-seeded Henderson State, 82-62.
The Golden Suns ended the season 14-13 overall, giving the program five-straight years of a winning percentage over .500. All told, under head coach
Dave Wilbers, the Golden Suns have had a winning season in 16 of his 17 years at Tech.
In Friday night's game, the Golden Suns were just unable to bounce back from a hot-shooting first quarter by Henderson State that saw the Reddies take a nine-point lead, 26-17, through the first 10 minutes of action.
Henderson replicated that production in the second quarter and out-scored Tech, 23-16, to give them a 16-point lead, 49-33, at the break. The comfortable separation was maintained throughout the remainder of the second half with the Reddies leading by as much as 24 points near the end of the fourth quarter.
Statistically, the Golden Suns had three players score in double figures and were led by
Maisa Marcal and her season-high 20 points. The senior transfer ended her lone year with the Golden Suns averaging 9.8 points per game on 39% shooting overall from the floor. After missing the eight games during the fall semester due to injury, Marcal played and started the remaining 19 games on Tech's schedule and earned Honorable Mention All-GAC acclaim.
Behind Marcal in scoring was
Alex Hill as she scored 13 points. Rounding out double-figure scoring was
Dana Thompson. Thompson also had 10 rebounds to end the season with 10 double-doubles.
