MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Arkansas Tech women's basketball team completed the regular season on Saturday afternoon on the road at Southern Arkansas and narrowly lost by a score of 74-72.
With the loss, the Golden Suns finished the regular season 14-8 in Great American Conference play and tied for second in the standings with Northwestern Oklahoma. By virtue of tiebreakers, the Golden Suns will be the No. 3-seed in the upcoming GAC Tournament. This year's tournament is being held at Grizzly Arena in Fort Smith.
As the No. 3-seed, Arkansas Tech will play No. 6-seed Ouachita Baptist in the opening round of the tournament on Friday, March 6. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 8 p.m. that night.
In their game against SAU, the Golden Suns held the early advantage, but after breaking an 18-all tie at the 2:24 mark, the Muleriders closed out the first quarter on a 10-3 run, giving them a 28-21 lead.
The Golden Suns were able to make up that difference by the end of the second quarter as it was a tie game, 39-all, going into halftime.
The third quarter was closely played, but SAU eventually out-scored Tech by two as they carried a 55-53 lead into the fourth.
The Muleriders would push their lead out as high as eight points early in the fourth quarter and did not relinquish their lead at any point. The Golden Suns were able to pull within a point on three separate occasions over the final two and a half minutes, but each time, SAU was able to hold the Golden Suns off with makes at the free throw line.
Three players scored in double figures for the Golden Suns.
Perina Leime led the team in scoring with 24 points.
Logan Young was next with 18 points.
AbbiGrace Cunningham rounded out double-digit scoring with 12 points.
