Box Score (html)
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – SWOSU Women's Basketball came out on the winning side against Henderson State on the road on Thursday evening by a final score of 71-61, in what was a much lower scoring affair than the No. 11/9 Lady Bulldogs have been used to this season.
In the lowest scoring half of play of the 2017-18 season thus far, the Lady Bulldogs trailed for nearly 16 minutes of game time through the first two quarters and by as many as nine points. Similar to Saturday's game against Oklahoma Baptist, SWOSU trailed by a possession at the half way point.
SWOSU struggled to find its offensive footing in the first half after shooting just 9-of-29 (31%) from the field. Turnovers seemed to be a problem for the Lady Bulldogs, who committed nine of them in the first half including seven in the first quarter. The good news though was the SWOSU defense forced Henderson State into 14 turnovers which hindered the Reddie attack in the process. Headed to the halftime locker rooms, it was the Lady Bulldogs trailing HSU by one point at 28-27.
A 10-0 run to open the second half gave the Lady Bulldogs the spark they needed after the slow-paced first two quarters. The Lady Bulldogs tallied 21 points in the third quarter and outscored HSU by seven in the frame to hold a seven point advantage headed into the fourth and final quarter.
To start the fourth quarter, SWOSU established a double digit lead in the early going before the teams began to trade buckets. With SWOSU holding a 10-point margin, the Reddies would continually answer to cut the lead to single digits before the Lady Dawgs would answer with a bucket of their own and push the lead back to double digits. This trend continued until around the halfway point of the quarter when HSU made a run at their deficit.
Henderson State clawed back to within four points at the 3:08 mark of the final quarter following a made three pointer and had the basketball looking to cut into the lead further after a steal on defense. However, the Lady Bulldog defense held firm and got much needed stops down the stretch to keep the Reddies at least two possessions away from the lead at all times.
Both
Taylor Hedrick and
Hailey Tucker knocked down free throws on back-to-back possessions and SWOSU led by six points with 48 seconds to go. Back on the other end of the floor,
Hayden Priddy came away with the final dagger steal and dished the ball to
Bethany Franks who was then fouled. Franks connected on both of her free throws, pushing the Bulldog lead to eight with 29 seconds remaining which all but gave the Lady Bulldogs more than enough to work with to close out the contest.
The 71-point scoring performance by SWOSU snapped the Lady Bulldogs' three-game streak of scoring at least 90 points in a game. The Lady Dawgs shot just under 40% as a team from the field, but held HSU to 35.9% shooting from the floor overall and forced the Reddies into 24 turnovers as a team.
Bethany Franks led the way on offense with another double-double, posting 16 points and 14 rebounds.
Hailey Tucker also notched 16 points, followed by
Hayden Priddy and
Tyra Aska who both added 12 apiece. The Lady Bulldogs got to the foul line 22 times on the night and made 19 of their attempts compared to allowing just nine foul shots to the Reddies who hit eight of them.
SWOSU (17-1, 13-0 GAC) will look to continue their undefeated GAC schedule on Saturday across the street against Ouachita. That tipoff is scheduled for 1 pm from inside the Bill Vining Arena in Arkadelphia.
