RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team continued to show off its new-look high-octane offense on Monday night as they beat Champion Christian 118-56 to move to 2-0 on the season.
It was the second-straight game that the Golden Suns surpassed the century mark in scoring, this time ending with 118 points. The three-point shot powered most of the points scored by Tech as the Golden Suns made a program single-game record 21 three-pointers.
The previous record was 18 made three pointers, done so at Northwestern Oklahoma back in January, 2017.
Almost half of the makes on Monday came from
AbbiGrace Cunningham and
Madelyn Atkins as the two each made five from downtown. Cunningham was 5-of-7 from long range, 10-of-14 overall from the floor and 2-of-2 from the free throw line to give her a career-high 27 points. Atkins took all of her shots from long range and was 5-of-10. She was also 1-of-3 from the free throw line to finish with 16 points.
As a team, the Golden Suns made 13 three-pointers in the first half alone, which led to 71 points being put up by Tech. That number was just two points shy of the program-record for most points in a first half as Tech had scored 73 points in the first half of their game against Central Baptist back in 2010.
In addition to Cunningham and Atkins, six other players made a three-pointer in the game.
Shalyn Lyle was a perfect 3-of-3 from deep while
ClaraGrace Prater,
Perina Leime and
Jaiden Smith each had a pair of made three-pointers. Prater would be the third and final Golden Sun to score in double figures as she had 10.
Overall, the Golden Suns were 45-of-90 (50.0%) from the floor, 21-of-47 (44.7%) from three-point range and 7-of-11 (63.6%) from the free throw line. The 90 attempted field goals by Tech established a new single-game record, besting the previous record of 89 vs. Ecclesia in 2018.
The Golden Suns will now prepare for their first road test of the season as they will be at Arkansas-Fort Smith on Wednesday, November 19. Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. from the Stubblefield Center in Fort Smith.
