By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech women's basketball team put themselves through a final workout on Monday night, cruising to a 72-53 exhibition victory over North Alabama at the Hooper Eblen Center.
"We had a great effort tonight," said Tech head coach Kim Rosamond. "I thought our attitude was extremely good. There were times in the game where we executed extremely well."
After building a 31-17 halftime lead, the Golden Eagles never looked back, slowly building and maintaining the advantage.
The key to that was a strong defensive effort in the first half.
"I was very pleased with the defense in the first half as we held them to 17 points," Rosamond said. "They're an explosive basketball team offensively. They can shoot the 3 and push really hard in transition."
Tech started off with a 7-0 run before North Alabama picked up its first points of the contest, then outscored the Lions 16-8 through the first quarter. In the first half, UNA was held to 20 percent shooting, hitting five of its 25 shots from the field. Tech held the Lions to 2-for-12 in the second quarter as they scored nine points.
UNA attempted to climb back into the game with a long-range assault but was only able to knock down one of its 14 3-point tries in the opening 20 minutes. The Lions ended the game 7-for-27 from 3-point range.
But it was a story of two halves. North Alabama doubled its output in the third quarter, shooting 3-for-4 from 3-point range and 5-for-9 from the field, but Tech still outscored them 19-17 to maintain the advantage.
"There were times where we didn't get into where we needed to get into defensively," Rosamond said. "We didn't contain the ball like we needed to. It also became a foul-fest at that point and we sent them to the free-throw line way too much."
In the contest, Tech forced 22 turnovers and had nine steals, led by Asia Harper with three.
Freshman Akia Harris played like anything but, leading the Golden Eagles with 14 points, three assists and two steals. Anacia Wilkinson, who missed last season with an injury, made the most of her Tech debut with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Tech dominated the glass 46-37 as Treyvonna Brooks pulled down nine rebounds. The Golden Eagles had 17 offensive caroms and 29 defensive.
The Golden Eagles finished the game shooting 40 percent from the field and was 3-for-11 from 3-point range.
North Alabama had three players in double digits as Emma Wallen scored 15 points to lead the Lions, while Jaclyn Heath had 14 and Michaela DeKilder had 11.
"Overall, I think there were a lot of positives to build off of in our first game. We've got a really good opponent coming in here on Friday night, so we're going to have to be a lot better on the defensive end than we were in the second half tonight. But other than that, I was really pleased with our effort."
With the preseason in the books, the Golden Eagles open their 2016-17 season in earnest on Friday as Tech hosts Wright State, starting at 6 p.m.
With the game on Veterans' Day, Tech is offering a free ticket to active or veteran military personnel with a valid military ID. For tickets, call (931) 372-3940, visit the Eblen Center ticket office or visit www.ttusports.com.
