MAGNOLIA, Ark. – After a tough loss on Thursday evening in Searcy, head coach Adam Collins' Mulerider Women made sure they ended up on the winning side of Saturday afternoon's Great American Conference home opener against Henderson State. Behind career-high scoring efforts from Kisi Young and Ariana Guinn, Southern Arkansas went shot-for-shot with the Reddies before running by HSU for a 112-99 victory in a contest that saw SAU notch the second-best single-game scoring output in program history.
 
Young went for 28 points and added ten rebounds with two assists and a steal in a double-double effort. Guinn followed with 23 points, four assists, three rebounds and a steal. Three other Muleriders registered double figures in the scoring column as Diamond Morris delivered 17 points with six rebounds, one assist and a steal. Dori Brown followed with a dozen points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal, while Kenzie Ezekiel scored 11 points with a steal and an assist.
 
The Muleriders shot 46.3% from the floor, its second-highest shooting effort this season, and 40.9% from beyond-the-arc with nine makes in 22 attempts. Southern Arkansas shot 38 free throws with 29 successful attempts compared to just 13 attempts from HSU. The Muleriders outrebounded their opposition 41-34.
 
Southern Arkansas jumped out to a 19-8 lead six and a half minutes into the contest, but saw the Reddies rally back with 13-6 run in the final 3:26 to cut the SAU lead to four points through one quarter of play. The Muleriders would lead by as much as eight points on multiple occasions in the second quarter, while Henderson State was able to cut into the deficit and bring it down to one possession three times in the final 1:50 before the intermission.
 
HSU pulled to within a bucket of the Mulerider lead with 56 seconds to play as Maci Mains converted a contact bucket and the ensuing free throw to bring the score to 48-46. In the final thirty seconds, SAU's Maggie Evans recorded a steal which led to Diamond Morris grabbing an offensive rebound and converting a shot off the glass to push the Muleriders out front by four at the half.
 
The action heated up coming out of the break as Southern Arkansas used a couple of midrange knock downs from Kisi Young, a drive to the basket by Kenzie Ezekiel that saw the guard split two defenders, and transition trifectas from Kylie Warren and Ariana Guinn which helped the Muleriders build a ten-point lead at 68-58 with 5:02 remaining in the quarter following three free throws from Dori Brown.
 
SAU needed all of that and more to fend off a pesky Reddie bunch that matched the host's 34 third-quarter points and managed to even the contest at 80 following one of several inside baskets from HSU's Karrington Whaley. Four makes from the stripe, two each from Braydyn Hill and Morris put Southern Arkansas up 84-80 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The first three and a half minutes of the final quarter of action saw the Muleriders engineer an 11-2 run to take a 95-82 lead with 6:36 to play. Moments later, the SAU lead grew to 14 points, its largest of the afternoon, as Jessica Jones knocked down a triple try to put SAU at the century mark for the second time this season. Down the stretch, the Reddies would tighten the deficit down to only eight as the Muleriders picked up their first league win of the young season.
 
SAU turns its attention to next Saturday and a meeting with Ouachita. The last time the two teams met was in the opening round of the GAC Tournament last spring with the Tigers sinking a buzzer beater to advance with an 85-84 win. Tipoff from inside the W.T. Watson Center is set for 1 p.m. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.