Ouachita Baptist Holds off Southern Arkansas

Contact: Houston Taylor

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – In a battle of winless Gulf South Conference West Division opponents, Ouachita Baptist held off Southern Arkansas for their first league win with a 67-62 decision Saturday at Bill Vining Arena.

The Lady Muleriders battled back from deficits of 10 and 12 points in each respective half before falling short in seeking their first conference victory. Trailing 27-20 at the break, SAU clawed back for the game’s seventh tie at 47-47 on Kayla Jones’ jumper with 9:19 left. But Gabby Coleman’s jumper at 5:43 completed a 12-0 run by the Lady Tigers and produced another hill for Southern Arkansas to try and overcome. The Lady Muleriders nearly got over it too, using a 15-5 spree to get within 64-62 on a made first free throw from Goldie White with 58 ticks remaining. Although White missed her second attempt, Shardae Thompson gave SAU life by pulling down the offensive board. White’s jumper missed though, forcing Southern Arkansas to foul. Coleman’s two free throws made it a four-point OBU edge and after Blair Jordan’s missed three-pointer and another Lady Mulerider foul, Coleman hit one of two for the final margin.

Jordan’s jumper at 14:10 in the first gave SAU a 9-7 advantage, their last lead of the game. From there, Ouachita Baptist went on a 16-8 run for a 25-15 edge at 3:32 before settling for the seven-point margin at the half.

The Lady Tigers maintained their advantage in the game with a 44-32 edge on the boards and shot 44.4 percent to Southern Arkansas’ 37.3. The two teams were almost identical offensively with OBU’s two extra field goals making the difference as they were 24 of 54 to the Lady Muleriders’ 22 of 59. Ouachita Baptist was 3 of 13 (23.1) on treys, while SAU hit 3 of 14 (21.4), and the Lady Tigers held a narrow margin at the free throw line, getting 16 of 28 (57.1) to Southern Arkansas’ 15 of 20 (75.0).

The Lady Muleriders kept themselves in the game defensively, forcing 21 OBU turnovers which they converted into 28 points. SAU committed 15 turnovers.

Coleman shared game-high scoring honors with White, finishing with 17 points. Angela Colliver added 15 for Ouachita Baptist, and Haley Griffin chipped in 11 and pulled down seven rebounds.

White hit 7 of 10 free throws en route to her 17 points and had a game-high eight rebounds. Shanaye Davis added 12 points, and Jones and Jordan chipped in 11 apiece.

The loss was Southern Arkansas’ ninth consecutive, the program’s longest such streak since losing 19 straight games combined between the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons when the Lady Muleriders dropped their final 17 games of a 1-24 year in their inaugural GSC season in ’95-’96.

SAU will try to reverse that trend Thursday in Magnolia when they host Harding in a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.