Fayette, Iowa – Senior Diamond Morris picked up right where she left off last season and led Mulerider scoring in their season opener against Upper Iowa at the Central Region Challenge. Morris's 11 points were accompanied by two blocks and two assists and was the only Mulerider to break the 10-point mark in the Friday night 86-74 loss.
Morris's scoring was trailed by senior Kylie Warren and junior Braydyn Hill who recorded 9 points each and Jessica Jones who notched eight points herself. Hill's nine points were due in part to her accuracy, shooting at a 80.0 field goal percentage and hanging with the Mulerider's top scorers despite playing only half as long as the other leaders. Warren recorded a career high 121 rebounds in the 2021-22 season and began the 2022-23 season with a team-leading eight.
Junior transfer student from Centenar, Addy Tremie, led three-point scoring with a 66.7 success rate, making two of her three attempted shots and connecting on the most three pointers of the Muleriders.
The Muleriders started action out front, taking the lead over Upper Iowa following a Morris layup and free throws from Hill and Morris. A three-point shot from Tremie secured the Southern Arkansas lead, and the Magnolia team went on a tear, going on a 13-5 run to hold a 19-9 early lead over the Peacocks. UIU retaliated with a 20-7 run to take the lead from SAU and finish out the first 10 minutes of play two points ahead of the Mulerider team after Tremie connected on another three pointer with 0 seconds left on the clock to finish out the first quarter.
The Muleriders and Peacocks started out the second quarter with an evenly matched back-and-forth fight for the first two minutes. Senior Kenzie Ezekiel started the scoring which was then matched by UIU followed by phots from Jones and sophomore Chloe Wilbanks that were immediately matched by the opposing team. Southern Arkansas had two more scoring opportunities in a jump shot by freshman Kylie Minter and free throw by freshman Kelsie Hawkins before the Peacocks defense dominated play and did not allow a single Mulerider point for the last seven minutes of play in the second quarter.
The Muleriders started to find their footing again towards the end of the third quarter, but the Muleriders really began to look like the team that started the first quarter by the time the last ten minutes rolled around. Jones started fourth quarter scoring with a free throw before the team went on a 7-2 run to put pressure on Upper Iowa. The Muleriders cut the lead to just ten points with a layup from freshman Brooklin Brown before the Peacocks responded with one of their own to end the game with a 12-point lead over Southern Arkansas.
Southern Arkansas attempted and connected on more three-point shots than Upper Iowa, but UIU dominated inside play, topping the Muleriders' points in the paint by 22. The Peacocks made almost half of their attempted shots while the Muleriders successfully made 38.5%.
The Muleriders will wrap up the Central Region Challenge tomorrow with a 5:30 p.m. tipoff against Lincoln University of Missouri. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
