MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The Southern Arkansas women's basketball team fought valiantly and played the No. 15-ranked Arkansas Tech women's basketball team closer than any opponent has since the beginning of January, but the Lady Mulerider (14-7, 10-7 GAC) upset bid ultimately fell short down the stretch as the Golden Suns (19-2, 17-0) held off SAU for a 77-68 win on Saturday afternoon inside the W.T. Watson Center.
 
Regardless of fan association, those who were in attendance on Saturday were certainly treated to a tremendous basketball game as the GAC contest saw six tie scores and 12 lead changes with the largest lead for either team being no more than nine points.
 
In the first quarter, the Lady Muleriders jumped out to an early eight-point advantage at the 6:55 mark of the opening stanza, but a 7-0 Golden Suns run over the next 2:36 of the game made it a one-point contest, 13-12 with 4:19 left in the quarter.
 
After the two teams traded baskets over the next two minutes or so, the advantage still was a point in favor of SAU with 2:41 remaining on the clock, but the Golden Suns would go on a 9-2 run to close out the quarter and give Tech a six-point lead, 23-17.
 
Early in the second quarter, the Golden Suns would push their advantage out to its apex of nine points, 26-17, but the Lady Muleriders would respond with a 9-2 of their own to pull to within a bucket, 28-26, with 5:27 left before the half.
 
Trailing by seven points, 39-32, with 1:48 left in the first half, the Lady Muleriders would rip off a 9-0 run to give them a two-point lead heading into the locker room. The start of that half-ending run was a three-pointer by Jaida Harden. Baskets by Caroline Ficher and Shana Holmes followed to knot the game a 39-all, with four seconds left.
 
With the Golden Suns needing to simply inbound the ball following Holmes' layup to enter halftime with the score changed, SAU's Ficher caught the Golden Suns lackadaisical and stole the inbounds pass and sunk a mid-range jumper as the horn sounded to give the Lady Muleriders their two-point halftime lead.
 
Coming out of halftime, play drew tighter than ever as the score would be tied on three occasions and the lead would change hands six times in the third quarter alone.
 
The Lady Muleriders would emerge from that well-played third quarter with a four-point lead, 62-58.
 
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Muleriders' shooting began to grow cold as they were just 1-of-8 overall from the floor over the first five minutes of action. During the Lady Muleriders' cold-spell, the Golden Suns would begin to heat up as they were 4-of-7 from the floor, which included 3-of-5 shooting from long range. That shooting effort would pace an 11-2 run to for the Golden Suns as they grabbed a five-point lead, 69-64 with 5:06 left in the game.
 
The next three minutes of action would be cold offensively for both teams, but an additional three points would be tacked on to the Golden Suns' earlier run to push them ahead by eight points, 72-64, with just over two minutes left to play.
 
A pair of Shunta Nevitt free throws at the 1:42 mark gave SAU their first points since early in the fourth quarter and a made layup by Alyssa Hamilton moments later made it a four-point game, 72-68, with 1:37 left to play.
 
The Golden Suns would hold strong from there, however as they closed out the final time on the clock with a 5-0 run to give them a nine-point win.
 
That single-digit margin of victory for the Golden Suns was their lowest since January 7 when Southeastern Oklahoma lost to Arkansas Tech by five points.
 
Statistically, the Lady Muleriders played a solid team game with four of their five starters scoring in double figures, Of those, Tierra Tucker would have the most points with 20. Behind Tucker was Holmes with 16 points. Rosa Bryant would register her 16th double-double of the season as she went for 13 points and 12 rebounds. Caroline Ficher would round out double-figure scoring with an even 10 points.
 
The Lady Muleriders will now look to quickly rebound as they will play at home against Arkansas-Monticello for "Rivalry Night" in the GAC. Tip-off inside the W.T. Watson Center is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.