ADA, Okla. – Transfer senior Sue Key registered her third game this season with 30 or more points, while her final basket, a last-second runner, on Saturday afternoon helped Southern Arkansas stave off a pesky East Central squad in the fourth quarter as the Lady Muleriders picked up their third-straight Great American Conference win with a 68-66 victory over the Tigers inside the Kerr Activities Center.
 
SAU (7-14, 6-9 GAC) took a 59-43 lead into the final quarter of action, but managed just two successful field goal attempts in the final ten minutes, which included Key's go-ahead shot and a mid-range jumper from Olivia McWilliams at the 6:38 mark of the fourth quarter. ECU outscored the Lady Muleriders 23-9 in the quarter with Key accounting for seven of those nine points, including the last four points of the game after SAU trailed 66-64 with 2:25 remaining in the contest.
 
Productive second and third quarters helped Southern Arkansas overcome a 15-9 first quarter deficit to carry that aforementioned 16-point lead into the fourth quarter. The Lady Muleriders scored 50 of their 68 points in the middle two quarters, while holding East Central to 28 points in the same twenty minutes of play.
 
Southern Arkansas went for more than six and half minutes in the fourth quarter without scoring a basket until Key's heroics in the final SAU possession gave the Lady Muleriders a 68-66 lead. Before that make, Key sank two free throws on two separate trips to the line to tie the game at 66.
 
Key finished with 34 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including 6-of-7 from beyond-the-arc (85.7%) with an 8-of-13 success rate from the free throw line and added four rebounds, one assist, one block and a steal in 38 minutes of play. McWilliams followed with 11 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.
 
Kimberly Crown finished a point and rebound shy of her eighth double-double. Maggie Williams finished with six points and six rebounds to go along with a pair of steals and a block in a career-high 25 minutes on the court. Anna Djedjemel collected a game-high five steals: the fifth instance this season in which a Lady Mulerider has recorded five or more steals in a game.
 
The Lady Muleriders sank seven trifectas for the second-straight game and the fourth time this season and posted a season-best 63.6% (7-of-11) clip from three-point range. SAU finished 44.1% (26-of-59) from the floor which included a 53.6% (15-of-28) shooting mark in the first half. Conversely, the Tigers shot just 26.1% (6-of-23) from the floor in the first half, but converted all 14 of their free throw attempts to keep the game close heading into the intermission.
 
The win positions the Lady Muleriders into a three-way tie for seventh-place in the Great American Conference standings and just a game back of a three-way tie for fourth-place with seven league games left. The conference's top eight teams at the end of the regular season will advance to the league tournament in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on March 1-4.
 
Southern Arkansas returns home for their next three games and hits the court again on Thursday, February 8, for a GAC matchup with league-leading and nationally ranked No. 10 Southwestern Oklahoma State. Tip-off from inside the W.T. Watson Center is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.