Box Score

SEARCY — After a sluggish start to the Gulf South Conference, the Harding Lady Bisons have been hitting their stride in the last few weeks, winning their third consecutive game on Saturday night.

Junior Stacey Owens scored a team-high 20 points as the Harding defeated the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns 80-48 at the Rhodes Field House.

With the victory, Harding (18-6, 4-6 Gulf South) took a one-game lead over Henderson State for the first and final playoff spot in the GSC-West with four conference games left. Henderson State lost to Southern Arkansas 84-78 on Saturday.

Harding shot better than 50 percent while holding Arkansas Tech (17-6, 7-3), the most accurate shooters in the GSC, to only 14 of 48 field goals (29.2 percent). Arkansas Tech's Amanda Grappe entered the game as the GSC leader in points scored per game, averaging 18.9 points, but the Lady Bisons held her to 13 points. Nine of her points came off free throws.

“We did a good job getting stops,” Harding Coach Tim Kirby said. “We work on defense every day — we spend about 80 percent of our practices on defense, and today things that we'd been working on were showing up.”

The Lady Bisons took the lead 6-3 on a three-pointer by senior Catherine McMenamy in the second minute, and the Lady Bisons never trailed again. Senior Ashley Anderson scored on a pass from McMenamy to give Harding extended its lead to 10 points at 24-14 with 9:08 left.

Harding led by as many as 22 points in the first half and were ahead 41-24 at halftime. The Lady Bisons outscored Arkansas Tech 20-3 in points off turnovers.

“I thought we came out incredible tonight,” Kirby said. “We've been showing signs of it for weeks, even in losses.”

Neither team scored in the first two minutes of the half, but the Lady Bisons pulled away as the half progressed. Freshman Lindsey Root scored a three-pointer in the final minute to give Harding its largest lead at 80-46.

Anderson finished with 14 points, hitting 6 of 7 free throws. Root added 12 points for Harding in 18 minutes. Junior Kaitlin May and freshman Sierra Rollins each finished with 7 rebounds.

Harding was 10 of 17 from the three-point line (58.8 percent), and Root hit all three of her attempts. McMenamy and sophomore Makala McNair each scored two of them.

Rachel Brazell added 11 points for Arkansas Tech. Nikki Earles led the Golden suns with four rebounds.

Harding will host Christian Brothers on Thursday at the Rhodes Field House at 5:30 p.m.