Box Score (html)
SEARCY, Ark. – SWOSU Women's Basketball won its eighth straight game to start the season following a 84-73 victory over the Harding Lady Bisons on Saturday afternoon. This is the best start to a season in SWOSU's NCAA Division II history and the best since the 1992-93 season when the team that year started 11-0.
With the win, the Lady Dawgs now sweep their annual weekend trip against Arkansas Tech and Harding – marking the first time in Great American Conference history a team has collected wins over the two teams in the same conference weekend.
SWOSU brought its defense to Rhodes Reaves Field House in the first half, holding Harding to just 32% shooting on 10-for-31 overall from the field. The Lady Bulldogs forced the Lady Bisons into 11 turnovers, while committing just two themselves.
Even with the tight defense, SWOSU couldn't quite distance themselves from the Lady Bisons after shooting just 34% from the field themselves. The Dawgs managed to take 13 more shots than Harding, but took just a six-point lead into the halftime locker room leading 33-27.
Tyra Aska paced the offense with 13 first-half points, followed by
Hayden Priddy with eight and
Hailey Tucker with seven.
By the completion of the third quarter, SWOSU had built a 12-point lead. Tucker began to heat up, scoring eight points in the 10-minute session including 2-for-2 from way beyond the arc within a minute span that helped the Dawgs first establish their double digit margin. The third quarter was SWOSU's best shooting quarter, connecting on 50% of their 18 shots as a team.
Holding a double digit margin heading into the fourth and final quarter, SWOSU and HU went back and forth throughout the remainder of the game. In the early going it was the Lady Dawgs who looked like they would run away with the game after
Hayden Priddy was fouled on a fast break and got her layup to fall for the and-one. The three-point play put SWOSU ahead by 17, but a quick Harding run got the Lady Bisons back within nine nearing the halfway point of the quarter.
HU would cut their deficit to seven on three separate occasions, but SWOSU answered each time to halt any form of comeback by the Lady Bisons. After the dawgs weathered quick shots by Harding paired with fouling to extend the contest, the time finally ran out and SWOSU earned its hard fought victory.
The starting five for SWOSU finished with 76 of the 84 points scored in the game, led by Tucker and Priddy who each tallied 24 apiece. Tucker matched her career best in blocks, stuffing six HU shots on the afternoon while also missing her third straight double-double by just two rebounds.
Tyra Aska was quiet in the second half, but finished with 17 points.
Bethany Franks was in foul trouble for much of the afternoon, but added five points and a team best nine boards and four steals to her stat line.
"I challenged my team today, and I love that my team can step up to those challenges on a daily basis," Head Coach
Kelsi Musick said in her postgame interview. "We've done a lot of things and made a lot of history, but we've never gone on this road trip and gone 2-0 and we finally got that done today. I'm so proud of them today and we're ready for another challenge on the road next week with Lubbock Christian."
The win sets up another Top 25 matchup for SWOSU, when they travel to Lubbock, Texas next Thursday (Dec. 7) to take on No. 8-ranked Lubbock Christian whose only loss this season is to reigning NCAA Division II Champion Ashland.
