MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Freshman Diamond Morris went for a season-high 22 points and 11 other Muleriders scored at least a basket, but Southern Arkansas was topped late by East Central 81-77 on Saturday afternoon from inside the W.T. Watson Center. SAU honored their four senior basketball players, Erin Brinkley, Alyssa Crase, Lena Maledon and Tamera Shaver, following a contest that featured 18 lead changes and eight tied scores.
 
The Muleriders (16-10, 10-10 GAC) remain in the hunt for one of the final postseason berths to the league's March tournament. SAU will head back to the Sooner State looking to punch its ticket to Bartlesville as matchups against Southern Nazarene and Oklahoma Baptist await in the regular season's final weekend.
 
On Saturday, Morris' third career 20-point game came on 6-of-17 shooting and she connected on 8-of-9 from the charity stripe. Shaver and junior Kisi Young each scored nine points.
 
Southern Arkansas led 35-34 at the intermission, but trailed by a point after three quarters. In the fourth, ECU's lead grew to eight multiple times as the Muleriders would only get as close as five points in the final three minutes until a last second make set the final deficit at four points. The Tigers did not trail in the final ten minutes which followed a third quarter that saw the lead change hands 14 times.
 
SAU turned East Central over 24 times which led to 17 points with 13 of those coming in the second half of play. With a dozen players scoring for the Muleriders, SAU outscored ECU 50-3 in bench points, while the Tigers won the battle inside by outscoring SAU 32-30 in the paint in addition to outrebounding the host 48-38.