MONTICELLO, Ark. – Diamond Morris led Mulerider scoring while recording a career night in the Monday night matchup in Monticello. The Senior posted 22 points on the night to surpass 1,000 career points and became the first Mulerider since Kmaria Hobbs (2008-12) and just the fifth player since 2000 to accomplish the feat. She finished the night at a 53.8% shooting clip with five rebounds and eight steals. The Blossoms and Muleriders now share a conference record of 4-7 alongside Ouachita.
True freshman Brooklin Brown recorded her fourth double digit scoring game with 14 points while making a career-high four threes at a 66.7% shooting clip. Junior Addy Tremie recorded double digit scoring figures as well with ten points at a 62.5% field goal percentage, her highest of the season.
The Southern Arkansas bench continues to play a huge role in offensive scoring, contributing 23 points to the 76-63 win. Southern Arkansas saw a shooting clip of 49.1%, their best of the season and shot 34.6% from three. The Muleriders made nine threes to represent their third straight game with fewer than ten made threes. SAU forced 30 turnovers, their most since returning for the New Year and improved to a 6.47 turnover margin to lead the Great American Conference.
The Arkansas rivals kept and neck and neck in the first quarter, the lead changing 12 times and tying two. Southern Arkansas went on a 7-0 run with three minutes to play to earn a five-point lead in the final minute, but UAM responded with a 6-0 run to surpass the Muleriders and gain the lead with seconds left in the quarter at 21-20.
The second quarter commenced with a made Blossom three that would hint at the UAM offensive domination that was to come. Arkansas-Monticello outscored Southern Arkansas 18-8 to gain an 11-point lead going into the half. Bailey Harris would score just as many points for the Blossoms as the entire Mulerider squad would produce in the second quarter.
Southern Arkansas would take the lead from the Blossoms and earn a four point advantage as they sped past the home team in the first four minutes of the second half. Morris, Brown and senior Jessica Jones contributed to the dominant run that included two made threes from Brown. Jones sunk a three to tie the game at 41-41 before she made a layup on a UAM turnover to earn the Muleriders their first lead since 0:23 in the first quarter. Harris pushed her team to keep up with the Muleriders, scoring nine points, including a three to tie the game with under 30 seconds to play. Rather than repeat the first quarter and allow a UAM advantage leading into the next quarter, Tremie made a buzzer beater jump shot to tie the game at 53-53 entering the final ten minutes of play.
Brown sunk a three in the first ten seconds of the fourth quarter to gain a lead the Muleriders would build on for the rest of the game. Southern Arkansas would hold the Blossoms to a game-low ten points while Morris would lead the Riders to a dominate victory with ten points in the quarter. The Muleriders landed two threes in the first minute of the quarter while Morris scored back-to-back-to back points in under a minute to take a 13-point lead. Morris later made a layup to earn SAU their largest lead of the game at 18 points. The Blossoms gave a final push at the end to go on 6-1 run to finish out the game and reduce the Mulerider victory to 13 points.
Southern Arkansas will head to Shawnee, Oklahoma to take on the 7-4 (GAC) Oklahoma Baptist Lady Bison. The teams will tipoff at 5:30 p.m. inside the Noble Complex. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
