Golden Eagles' next three games crucial in OVC
race
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech women’s
basketball team had one of its best shooting nights of the season
and put three players in double figures to claim a 65-59 Ohio
Valley Conference victory over Jacksonville State Monday night,
giving the Golden Eagles their fourth consecutive win in Eblen
Center.
Senior Tacarra Hayes led Tech (8-13/4-3 OVC) with 15 points, five
rebounds and three assists while sophomore Molly Heady added 14
points on 6-for-10 shooting, five rebounds and three steals.
Sophomore Jala Harris also scored in double digits with 11 points
and led Tech with five assists.
Tech shot 54.2 percent in the second half to finish the game with
a 47.2 percent shooting mark, the team’s third-best game of
the year. That included a 6-for-16 effort from long range, also the
third-best effort of the season.
The solid shooting effort helped to overcome a dominant night on
the boards by the Gamecocks (4-17/1-7 OVC), who grabbed 24
offensive rebounds and finished the contest with a 50-28 margin in
total rebounds.
JSU also placed three players in double figures in scoring, led by
Destiny Lane with 16 points. Danielle Vaughn scored a double-double
with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Brittany Manning added 10
points. Briana Morrow came up just shy of a second double-double
with nine points and 10 rebounds.
The Gamecocks shot 33.9 percent in the game but suffered 19
turnovers as Tech made nine steals. With their 24 offensive boards,
the Gamecocks had a 18-4 advantage in second-chance points.
After the score was tied four times during the first half, the
Golden Eagles put together an 8-0 run just before halftime to open
a 27-19 lead before heading into the break up six points,
27-21.
Jacksonville State led once, early in the contest, when they went
up 6-3 on a layup by Brianna Morrow with just 1:40 elapsed. Tech
bounced back quickly with layups from Jala Harris and Tacarra
Hayes, and things stayed tight for the next 13 minutes before
Tech’s late run snapped a 19-19 tie.
Tech quickly built a double-figure lead in the second half when
Briana Jordan’s layup with 16:56 to play made it 34-24. The
lead grew to as many as 15 points in the next 10 minutes, a jumper
by Harris with 6:50 to go making it a 49-34 difference.
The Golden Eagles maintained a double-figure lead into the final minute before JSU outscored Tech 7-2 in the final 27 seconds to cut the final difference to six points.
With the victory, the Golden Eagles are locked into a three-way
tie for fifth place in the OVC standings at 4-3 along with Morehead
State and Murray State. Eastern Illinois stands alone in first
place at 6-0 with UT Martin second at 5-1, and both Eastern
Kentucky and SIU Edwardsville tied for third at 5-3.
Tech’s next three assignments are against teams either tied
with or just above the Golden Eagles in the OVC standings, with the
first two on the road. This tough three-game challenge begins
Saturday afternoon with a 3 p.m. CT tipoff at Eastern Kentucky.
Following that, the Golden Eagles will be at Morehead State Monday
night for a 6 p.m. CT contest.
The next home game in Eblen Center is Wednesday, Feb. 1, when Tech
will host SIU Edwardsville in a 7 p.m. CT game.