TULSA– The Arkansas State women’s basketball concluded the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 68-58 loss to Tulsa Friday afternoon at Donald. W. Reynolds Center on the campus of Tulsa University.

Jada Ford led A-State (5-6) with 17 points, while Akasha Westbrook added seven, but it was not enough as the team shot just 34 percent (19-of-56) from the field and could not overcome a late fourth quarter run for the Golden Hurricane.

Lauren Bradshaw, Morgan Wallace and Westbrook all finished with five rebounds to pace Arkansas State in the category, but Tulsa finished with a 40-34 edge on the boards as the Red Wolves struggled to make shots down the stretch.

Shug Dickson led Tulsa (6-7) with 24 points, while Ebony Parker added 16 points. Kendrian Elliot led all players with 14 rebounds.

A-State used a 7-0 run to erase a six-point deficit in the first quarter to take an 8-7 lead. Ford led the charge with a 3-pointer and a jumper to put the Red Wolves out in front. The advantage grew to 10-9 after four straight field goals.

Ford helped push the advantage to 21-19 at the end of the first quarter with 10 points as the team shot 54 percent from the field. The Red Wolves turned the ball over seven times in the opening 10 minutes, which gave the Golden Hurricane 10 points off the miscues, but A-State held an 11-6 edge on the boards.

Tulsa caught fire in the second quarter as A-State saw its shooting percentage take a hit. The Red Wolves shot just 28.6 percent from the field, while Tulsa hit 53 percent of its attempts.

The Golden Hurricane closed the gap to 26-25 with 5:35 left in the half, but Westbrook answered with a pair of free throw to push the lead to three points. Tulsa tied the game 28-28 with a trey from the corner, but Lycia Peevy and Starr Taylor each responded with tough shots in the paint make it a 32-28 game.

Tulsa responded, however, and closed the half on a 9-0 run to take a 37-32 lead at the break.

Arkansas State finished the opening half 10-of-25 (40 percent) from the field, while Tulsa made 16 of its 35 attempts (46 percent). A-State turned the ball nine times that resulted in 12 points for the Golden Hurricane, while Tulsa also turned the tide on the boards in the second quarter and finished the half with an 18-16 edge.

Arkansas State tied the game twice in the second half but never found enough offense to make a push to retake the lead. Payton Tennison gave the team a jolt of energy with a 3-pointer off a busted play to tie the game at 42-42 with 4:37 to go in the third quarter.

Tulsa responded, however, with a 6-0 run to go up 48-42. The Red Wolves closed to the gap to 50-47 by the end of the period and Tayton Hopkins tied the game to start the fourth quarter when she got a steal, a bucket and was made a free throw after being fouled.

The Golden Hurricane responded again with a 7-0 run after A-State went nearly four minutes without scoring. The dagger for the Hurricane came when Ebony Parker drained a 3-pointer from the corner to go up 62-54 with 3:09 left that came during the midst of 9-0 run to help put the game away.

The Red Wolves open Sun Belt Conference play Friday, Dec. 29 against UL Monroe. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. at First National Bank Arena.

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JONESBORO, Ark. – Freshman guard Jada Ford scored 12 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth period, leading the Arkansas State women’s basketball team to a second-half surge that resulted in a 71-56 win over Louisiana-Monroe in both team’s Sun Belt Conference opener Thursday night at the Convocation Center.

A-State won its sixth consecutive Sun Belt opener while improving to 16-11 all-time in such games.  The Red Wolves (3-10, 1-0) also collected their 11th straight win over the Warhawks (3-9, 0-1) and brought their home record this year to an even 2-2.

“I liked our effort from start to finish and we know played hard from start and all the way through and I think a lot of had to do with how we wore them down and got them into foul trouble, which was significant,” Boyer said. “Another key area was the turnover battle where we only turned it over 10 times and they are a team that turns it over a lot and they only had six at the half, but we really stepped it up in the second half and got them to make 12 turnovers and we were able to take advantage of that.”

Including Ford, the Red Wolves had two players score in double figures as senior guard Brittany Fowler added 13 points.  Fowler also pulled down a career-high seven rebounds, matching junior forward Lauren Bradshaw for the most by an A-State player on the night.

The first half featured 11 lead changes and ended in a 33-33 tie, but the Red Wolves outscored the Warhawks 18-11 and 20-12 in the third and fourth periods, respectively.  A-State slightly improved its shooting percentage in the second half while ULM’s slightly dropped, but the Red Wolves scored 16 of their 18 points off turnovers in the second half.

Arkansas State opened the third period by scoring nine of the first 11 points as it claimed a 42-35 lead with 6:02 remaining.  It built its lead to as many as eight before closing with a seven-point advantage, 51-44.

The fourth also began with an Arkansas State run as it outscored ULM 12-4 over the period’s first five minutes to open up a 63-48 lead.  ULM was able to cut A-State’s lead to 11 points with 3:46 left, but couldn’t get any closer.

Ogo Obinabo played a pivotal role throughout the night and finished with a career-high seven points and nine rebounds and also was successful in drawing foul from the ULM defense which played a key factor with foul trouble late in the game.

“I’ll take seven points and nine rebounds from Ogo any day of the week,” Boyer said. “She really played well and the key with her is that she has also been aggressive but now she is starting to score off offensive rebounds and even though she struggled at the foul line she got their post players into foul trouble and that was huge.”

A-State finished the game with a .410 shooting percentage to ULM’s .359.  Although the Warhawks held a 43-41 advantage on the boards, the Red Wolves committed eight fewer turnovers while dishing out three more assists.

Arkansas State returns to action Saturday, Dec. 31, with a 2:30 p.m. home game against Louisiana-Lafayette.

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