ARKADELPHIA — The Ouachita women's basketball team stood toe-to-toe Saturday with No. 25 Arkansas Tech, but ultimately lost 93-86 for their third straight defeat.
Ouachita fell to 12-10 overall and 9-9 in Great American Conference play, while Arkansas Tech improved to 18-4 and 14-4 in league action. The senior trio got the Tigers' offense flowing early after
Abbey Harrison cleaned up an offensive rebound for a putback layup, but the Golden Suns pushed the pace to find an early rhythm of their own.
Audri Winfrey knocked down a corner three, then
Madeleine Tipton used a post move to score inside to give the Tigers a slim 7-6 lead.
Arkansas Tech made 12 of 16 shots in the opening quarter, feeding the ball inside to score on interior post play to build a 26-21 lead. The Tigers answered with more defensive pressure in the second quarter that forced four consecutive turnovers and flipped the momentum to surge on an 8-0 scoring run.
Sophomore
Ruby Trammell drove inside and kicked it out to Winfrey for her second 3-pointer from the right wing. Trammell intercepted a pass on the following defensive possession to ignite the fast break and senior
Heidi Robinson scored a putback layup through contact to level the score at 29 apiece.
Winfrey buried a transition three for her third deep shot of the first half to push the Tigers ahead 36-32 and force a Tech timeout. The Golden Suns stormed back when freshman Logan Young hit consecutive threes to tie it up at 40-40. With the first half game clock draining down, Robinson drove left and scored a layup through contact to send Ouachita into halftime with a 44-42 edge.
Robinson sparked the offense out the break and connected on a three from the right wing to give Ouachita a 50-48 lead. She later used a hesitation move to blow past her defender for a finger roll layup, plus the foul. Robinson drove left and scored another traditional three-point play to tie the game at 58-58. After Arkansas Tech went ahead by six, Robinson fired an assist ahead to Trammell for a transition three to cut the deficit in half.
The Golden Suns stretched their lead back to six early in the fourth, but Ouachita refused to go away. Robinson added another tough finish inside, then Tipton secured a long rebound and finished coast-to-coast to bring the Tigers back within one possession.
The Tigers made one last push inside the final minute after sophomore
Kayden Porter drained a 3-pointer from the left wing, then Tipton converted consecutive buckets inside to trim the margin to just five at 91-86. Ouachita tried to chip away at the late deficit, but was ultimately unable to level the score before Tech sealed it at the charity stripe.
Saturday's affair featured 15 lead changes and 12 ties, but the Golden Suns set up mismatches near the rim and relied on their bigs to take advantage inside the paint. Arkansas Tech made 58% of its shots from the floor and from 3-point land to hand Ouachita a tough conference loss.
Robinson led the Tigers with 27 points, five rebounds and four assists. Ouachita placed four players in double figures as Harrison finished with 16 points, Tipton scored 14 points, and Winfrey had 13 in the defeat. Despite the third straight loss, the Tigers matched the nationally ranked Golden Suns in a back-and-forth battle from the opening tip until the final buzzer.
With two weeks left in the regular season, Ouachita takes a road trip to Oklahoma next week to take on Southern Nazarene and Oklahoma Baptist looking to strengthen its position in the GAC standings.
