Box Score (html)
MONTICELLO, Ark. – SWOSU suffered a third straight Great American Conference setback on Tuesday night at Steelman Field House, falling to the University of Arkansas at Monticello, 74-71. It was SWOSU's first road game of the season.
Janae Coffee set the tone early in the first quarter with back-to-back layups before
Hailey Tucker dropped in consecutive three-point baskets to give SWOSU a 10-5 lead inside the first two minutes of play. Though the Blossoms whittled down the lead to two points, Tucker's third trey of the quarter gave SWOSU some breathing room. The Lady Dawgs ended the quarter with a 20-14 advantage.
Despite the inside presence of
Jessica Penner and Coffee, who combined for SWOSU's first six points in the second quarter, UAM managed to tie the game with 5:44 to go in the half.
Hayden Priddy laid it in off the glass to give SWOSU a little breathing room before draining a trey soon after. However, the Lady Bulldogs held just a one-point lead after the Blossoms rattled off a 7-0 run over the final minute of the half.
Arkansas-Monticello briefly took the lead at soon after the restart thanks to a jumper by the Blossoms' Jordan Goforth, but back-to-back three-pointers by
Jade Jones and Morgant Vogt quickly gave the Lady Dawgs the lead again. The teams got knotted up again at 39-39 with 6:23 on the clock, and they would end up trading the lead down the stretch as
Kylie Franz traded threes with UAM's Courtni Gibson and Braxton Chumley. Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs, Goforth posted her sixth and seventh points of the quarter on a pair of free throws following a three-point basket by Taylor Collins to give UAM a 54-51 lead heading into the final frame.
Nina Gregory nailed her second trey of the game to get tie the game up in the first minute of the fourth, and Penner completed a three-point play following a layup, to put SWOSU back in the lead. However, the Blossoms ripped off six straight points soon after and would not give up the lead down the stretch as SWOSU hit just two of its last eight attempts from the field before Jones knocked in a shot from long range with three seconds left in the game. One final attempt from three by Jones was off target as time expired, handing the Lady Dawgs their third straight conference defeat.
"We missed free throws and made some mistakes towards the end," said SWOSU Head Coach
Kelsi Musick. "I thought we came out pretty aggressive in the second half, but our composure faltered down the stretch. We'll need to do better on Saturday."
Penner and Jones led the Lady Dawgs with 13 points each, while Coffee and Tucker had 12 and 11 points respectively. Coffee also led the team on the glass with six boards. Crucially, UAM outrebounded SWOSU 47-35, including 11-8 on the offensive glass. That advantage turned into 11 second-chance points compared to the Lady Dawgs' five.
SWOSU will return to action on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. looking for their first conference win when they take on Southern Arkansas in Magnolia, Arkansas.
