MOREHEAD, Ky. – Slow starts hampered the Tennessee Tech women in the first two Ohio Valley Conference contests of the season. The third time must have been the charm as the Golden Eagles surged out to big leads early to take a 79-56 victory at Morehead State on Thursday night.

 

Tech (6-8, 1-2 Ohio Valley Conference) continues the road trip on Saturday as it heads to Evansville to take on Southern Indiana.

 

A trio of Golden Eagles led the way in scoring as Peyton Carter, Reagan Hurst and Maaliya Owens all three scored 13 points in the game, while Jennifer Sullivan scored 10. Carter also pulled down seven rebounds, tying Reghan Grimes on the boards.

 

Carter was 4-for-7 from the field, including three 3-pointers and was 2-for-2 at the stripe. Hurst was 6-for-11 with a trey, while also collecting four rebounds, an assist and a block. Owens finished the game with three 3-pointers and two made free-throws among her 13.

 

The Golden Eagles saw the things that slowed them down in the opening two games of the OVC slate fall in their corner on Thursday as Tech collected 27 points off of MSU's 15 turnovers, literally turning defense into offense. The battle on the glass was slightly in Tech's favor with a 39-34 margin with the Golden Eagles collecting 12 offensive boards to convert into 14 second-chance points.

 

Tech was also able to get 46 points in the paint to Morehead's 24, while it also scored 36 bench points to Morehead State's eight.

 

The Golden Eagles didn't need the free-throw line for success on Thursday, only drawing five shots from the stripe and hitting all of them. MSU (6-7, 1-1 OVC) was whistled for 12 fouls in the contest.

 

Anna Walker blocked four of Tech's six stonewalls as she also led the team in steals with three.

 

It was all Golden Eagles to open the first stanza as Tech scored the first 11 points of the contest as Hurst knocked down a second-chance layup and Grimes sank a jumper. Hurst hit a layup in the paint, followed by five points from Harley Paynter in her first career start as she hit an inside layup and a 3-pointer. Seven of those first 11 points came off of Morehead State turnovers.

 

The second quarter started on a similar run as the first as the Golden Eagles rolled off 10 straight points – all off turnovers – as Kiera Hill got an and-one bucket on a second-chance try, then Carter drained a 3 with Sullivan and Hill collecting another pair. The run also concluded a 15-point swing for Tech that closed off at the seven-minute mark in the period.

 

It wasn't as big of a runaway start in the third quarter as the Golden Eagles rifled off an 11-4 run there. That start gave Tech its largest lead of 29 points.

 

From the field, the Golden Eagles finished the game with a 48.5 shooting percentage, hitting 33 of 68 shots. Tech was 8-for-16 (50.0 percent) in the first quarter and 11-for-20 (55.0 percent) in the second quarter as the Golden Eagles outscored the host Eagles 21-11 and 26-14 in the first two periods for a 47-25 lead at the half.

 

Morehead made it closer in the third with a three-point, 20-17 deficit, then outscored Tech 14-12 in the fourth, but couldn't cut the overall Golden Eagle lead to under 21.