BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – The Southern Arkansas Lady Mulerider basketball team trailed by a bucket at the 7:28 mark, but a 15-3 Harding run closed out the first half as the Lady Bisons used a 66.7% three point shooting clip in the final twenty minutes to pull away to a 80-48 victory in the opening round of the Great American Conference in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
 
The Lady Muleriders (9-18) opened up the scoring with an early 3-0 lead courtesy of a Brianna Sifford free throw and an inside bucket from  Cemetra Jenkins. SAU matched the top-seeded Lady Bisons intensity throughout the first 12 minutes of action as back and forth scoring led to a 13-13 tie with 9:33 remaining in the first half.
 
A dribble-drive paint basket from Tierra Tucker gave Southern Arkansas their second lead and after a Lady Bisons three-pointer, Rosa Bryant answered with a high-percentage bucket to pull SAU back in front 17-16. That would be the last time the Lady Muleriders would lead in the contest as Harding closed the first half on the aforementioned 15-3 run to take the 31-20 lead and momentum into the intermission.
 
Southern Arkansas forced 14 turnovers and kept the Lady Bisons off-balanced for a majority of the opening twenty, but was outrebounded 24-10 as Harding built a double digit lead into the break.
 
A steal by Chanel Miller at the 16:05 mark led to a fouled fast break bucket by Aarika Reyna and the old-fashion three point play brought SAU within 9, 35-26. But Harding soon began to open up from the perimeter as the Lady Bisons were 8-of-12 behind the arc along with 48% shooting from the field to build a 34-point advantage to advance to the second round of the GAC tournament.
 
Rosa Bryant led Southern Arkansas with 11 points in 19 minutes of work off of the bench, while ten other Lady Muleriders collected at least a point.
 
Southern Arkansas finishes the year with nine wins and their second consecutive trip to Bartlesville and as the conference leader in steals.