SEARCY, Ark. – SWOSU Women's Basketball pushed (RV) Harding on Saturday, but fell just short in a 59-56 loss.

The teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 41-41, but it was the Lady Bisons who edged SWOSU in the final 10 minutes to pull out the win. With 4:23 to play, the Lady Bulldogs led 52-49 after Averi Zinn completed a three-point play with an and-one layup before Harding closed the game on a 10-4 run to pull it out. Zinn's foul shot to complete that three-point play allowed her to become the 16th player in program history to achieve 1,000 career points.

SWOSU had a chance to tie at the buzzer but a Layni Zinn three-point attempt as time expired rimmed out.

The tight finish came after the Lady Bulldogs erased a 10-point second quarter deficit. They trailed 20-14 after the first quarter and by double digits midway through the second quarter before outscoring Harding in both the second and third quarters.  

The Lady Dawgs shot 41% as a team from the field but were just 3-of-19 from the three-point line in the game. Defensively, they limited Harding to 37% shooting as a team and held them to just 1-of-4 from beyond the arc. The Lady Bisons did their damage at the foul line – shooting 18-of-19 (95%) in the contest.

SWOSU got outrebounded 38-30 and surrendered 11 offense rebounds that Harding converted into 21 second chance points.

Layni Zinn (11) and Hailey Grant (10) both also added double-digit scoring efforts. Lanie Gooch chipped in seven points with a season high 10 rebounds.

After four straight road games, SWOSU (10-10, 6-8 GAC) will return back home for a matching four-game homestand. The Lady Bulldogs will host Ouachita Baptist on Thursday (Feb. 6) and Henderson State (Feb. 8) on Saturday next week.