MAGNOLIA, Ark. – In their final home game of the 2016-17 season, the Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders battled for the entirety of Saturday afternoon's Great American Conference affair with Harding, and despite a solid defensive effort by SAU that held the 20^th-ranked Lady Bisons to a season-low in points scored, Harding edged Southern Arkansas, 49-46, on Senior Day inside the W.T. Watson Center.
 
RECORDS
#20 Harding Lady Bisons (22-3, 19-1 GAC)
Southern Arkansas Lady Muleriders (5-19, 3-17 GAC)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• On Senior Day, the three Lady Muleriders honored combined to score SAU's first five points as Caroline Ficher knocked down the first of her three trifectas on the afternoon, before classmates Faith Rolen and Makaila Jordan added a free throw each as the latter's try tied the game at 5 with 4:55 remaining in the first quarter.
• Two minutes later, Jordan would tie the game again, this time at 7-all at the 3:51 mark of the opening quarter and in the process sparked a 9-0 run for Southern Arkansas as the Lady Bisons went scoreless in the final 4:05 of the first quarter.
• That 9-0 run for the Lady Muleriders included a bucket by Kimberly Crown that gave SAU the lead and Ficher converted another triple try on the next trip down the court as Southern Arkansas led 12-7 with 2:54 to play in the first quarter.
• A free throw from Ficher and an inside jumper by Jordan rounded out first quarter scoring as Southern Arkansas led 15-7 after the opening ten minutes of action.
• Harding used the first three and a half minutes of the second quarter to cut their deficit to a possession, 17-14.
• Jasmyn Eckerman followed with the next six points for SAU as they led by seven, 21-14, with 4:27 remaining in the second quarter, before Harding engineered an 11-2 run to close out the low-scoring first half with a 25-23 lead.
• The Harding lead would stay at a bucket entering the fourth quarter of action as both teams produced eight points in the third quarter.
• Leading 33-31 to start the final quarter, the Lady Bisons received a pair of baskets from Caroline Hogue, which would stand as the only points for either team through the first 4:07 of the final ten minutes.
• A pair of free throws from Jordan, who went 9-of-11 from the line on Saturday, cut SAU's deficit to 37-33 with 5:53 remaining in the game.
• On the ensuing possession, Crown scored inside to cut the Lady Bisons lead to 37-35, before Anna Djedjemel found Alyssa Hamilton on a backdoor cut to the basket to tie the game at 37-all with 4:36 to play.
• Harding worked their lead back to five with just 1:21 left in the game and with 40 seconds to play the HU lead stood at nine, 47-38, before the Lady Muleriders manufactured one last push that saw Jordan hit a three-pointer with 26 seconds to play and follow that make with a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left.
• Ficher launched a three-pointer that found the bottom of the net to pull SAU to within a bucket at 48-46, with just three seconds left, but a desperation heave by the Lady Muleriders after Harding missed the second of two free throw attempts fell short.

 
FOR SOUTHERN ARKANSAS

• In her final game inside the W.T. Watson Center, Jordan led Southern Arkansas in scoring with 16 points and added three rebounds in 28 minutes.
• Ficher matched her season-high in scoring with 11 points, including 3-of-6 shooting from beyond-the-arc. The senior added a team-high two steals.
• Eckerman scored in double figures for the fourth-straight game and ninth time this season by adding ten points and finishing with nine rebounds and a steal.
• Kimberly Crown grabbed a game-high ten rebounds; her sixth double-digit rebound game of her rookie campaign. The freshman added a game-high three blocks.

 
FOR THE OPPOSITION

• Hogue led Harding in scoring with 15 points, grabbed nine rebounds and collected a game-high three blocks.
• Peyton Padgett and Sydney Layrock each added nine points, with the latter collecting eight rebounds.
• Falan Miller produced a game-high five steals and A'ndrea Haney led the Lady Bisons with three assists, while three other players totaled two assists each. Miller led Harding in minutes with 36; the only Lady Bison with more than 30.

 
OF NOTE

• Harding outscored Southern Arkansas in the paint (26-14), and in second-chance points (9-5), while each team scored 14 points off of turnovers.
• The Lady Muleriders committed two more turnovers than Harding (18-16), while the Lady Bisons outrebounded SAU 44-40 including 14 offensive rebounds. Harding collected seven offensive boards to just two for the Lady Muleriders in the first half.
• HU shot 32.1% (17-of-53) from the floor, while SAU converted a dozen of their 45 shot attempts (26.7%).
• The Lady Bisons struggled from the charity stripe in the first half shooting just 2-of-12 (16.7%), but recovered and shot 10-of-17 (58.8%) in the second half including 8-of-13 down the stretch in the fourth quarter to help hold off a Southern Arkansas run.
• Harding entered shooting 31.7% from three-point range on the season, but converted just three of their 21 attempts (14.3%).
• The Lady Muleriders were solid defensively as Harding's 49 points and 17 field goals made were the second-lowest opponent totals against SAU this season, while HU's free throw percentage (.414) and three-point percentage (.143) were season-lows for an SAU opponent.

 
UP NEXT

• Southern Arkansas hits the road for the final two games of the season beginning with a trip to Bethany, Oklahoma, for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off against Southern Nazarene on Thursday, February 23. SNU defeated the Lady Muleriders, 72-42, on January 7, in Magnolia.
• Live stats for Thursday's game in Bethany can be found here: http://sidearmstats.com/snu/wbball/.
• Live video will also be provided: https://www.youtube.com/user/SNUCrimsonStorm/videos.
• Dan Gregory will have the call of all the action: http://bit.ly/1Tsc86R.  
• Be sure to visit muleriderathletics.com for continuing coverage of Lady Mulerider Basketball including pre- and post-game updates, weekly notes, and the coach's show with Head Coach Julio Pacheco.