SEARCY – The Harding women's basketball team defeated No. 15 Arkansas Tech 82-79 in double overtime in Great American Conference action at the Rhodes-Reaves Field House on Monday. It was the Goldens Suns first conference loss of the season.
Sophomore forward Sydney Layrock captured her fifth double-double of the season with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Junior guard A'ndrea Haney made 12-of-15 free throws and finished with 18 points. Senior Kaylee Wiedower scored 12 points, making two 3-pointers and Falan Miller and Lundon Williams each had 11. Sophomore Mackenzie McNamara came off the bench and 11 rebounds.
Arkansas Tech was led by Fatima Adams who had 33 points, making 14-of-28 shots. She also had 17 rebounds. Anissa Pounds made six 3-pointers for the Golden Suns and finished with 18 points.
It was Harding's first win over a ranked opponent since the Lady Bisons defeated the Golden Suns 74-61 in January of last season. It was the eighth time in program history Harding has beaten a top-15 team.
It was only the second time in program history Harding has played two overtimes and it was the first win.
RECORDS
Harding improves to 15-7 overall and 13-5 in the GAC. Lady Bisons stay in sole possession of second place in the GAC standings. Arkansas Tech sits in first place and will have to wait another game to see if they can win the conference regular season outright. The top eight teams in the standings advance to the GAC Tournament held March 3-6, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
Harding took an 18-12 lead after the first quarter. The Lady Bisons held Arkansas Tech to shooting 23.1 percent (3-of-13) in the quarter.
SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
Harding led 33-30 at the break as Arkansas Tech outscored the Lady Bisons 18-15 in the quarter. The Golden Suns shot 57.1 percent and made 2-of-4 3-pointers.
THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
Harding continued to hold onto its lead after the third quarter, leading 47-44. Each team scored 14 points in the quarter as Sydney Layrock made 3-of-7 shots for Harding.
FOURTH QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
Arkansas Tech outscored Harding 20-17 to force overtime. Fatima Adams made a jumper with two seconds remaining to tie the game for the Golden Suns.
OVERTIME HIGHLIGHTS
Each team made nine points in the first overtime. Harding made 5-of-8 free throws to stay in the game and Falan Miller had four rebounds. Fatima Adams made 3-of-7 shots for Arkansas Tech.
SECOND OVERTIME HIGHLIGHTS
Harding took an 81-79 lead with 16 seconds remaining after two free throws by Sydney Layrock. Arkansas Tech missed a 3-pointer on its next possession and Lundon Williams made 1-of-2 free throws to seal the win with one second remaining. Harding didn't make a bucket in the second overtime but made 9-of-12 free throws.
TEAM/INDIVIDUAL STATS
Harding shot a season-high 39 free throws in the game and made 25 of them.
Arkansas Tech had four players foul out of the game. Three of the four were starters. The Golden Suns committed 33 fouls in the game. It set a new Harding record for the most fouls by an opponent. The previous record was 32 and it happened twice, the last being against Henderson State in 2011.
The Golden Suns outshot the Lady Bisons in the game. Arkansas Tech shot 39.2 percent (29-of-74) to Harding's 38.8 percent (26-of-67).
Harding won the rebounding war, grabbing 48 rebounds to 46. It was the fourth time this season the Lady Bisons have grabbed 48 or more rebounds in a game.
The score was tied 10 times, and the lead changed hands 14 times. Harding led for almost 39 minutes of the game.
UP NEXT
Harding will continue GAC action on Thursday when it hosts Southern Arkansas at 5:30 p.m., at the Rhodes-Reaves Field House.
