By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It was a dominant performance for the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team on Saturday night as the Golden Eagles cleared their bench for an 83-34 victory over visiting Tennessee State.
"I'm proud of our kids and proud of their effort," said Tech head coach Kim Rosamond. "It was a really good team win. It was a good way to bounce back from a really tough road weekend last weekend at Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky.
"While we would have loved to play Belmont on Thursday night, we really needed some time to work on ourselves, especially during this COVID season. Practice time has been very difficult to find, so being able to get in here for three days and really work on, first of all, defense, since we were not pleased with our defensive effort last weekend. We also haven't been shooting the ball well."
Rosamond continued, "I still believe that this is the best-shooting basketball team we have had since I've been here, and you saw that tonight, shooting 64 percent and 50 percent from 3. Last weekend, we shot the ball poorly and that really affected us on the defensive end. We worked on defense and we worked on shot selection. I'm pleased with the response and the overall effort from the team tonight."
Tech (5-4, 3-3 Ohio Valley Conference) had at least three points from each player in the contest, led by senior Megan Clark, who had a perfect night in her 12 minutes of action. Clark was 4-for-4 from the field, including 3-for-3 from long range and 2-for-2 at the line for a game-high 13 points.
Maaliya Owens added 11 and Kesha Brady scored 10 for the Golden Eagles' double-digit scorers. In all, Tech got 47 points off the bench, helping show fans just what the future has in store for the Tech women.
Jaden Wrightsell led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 11 points.
The Tech defense held TSU (0-9, 0-7 OVC) to single-digit scoring in both the first and fourth quarters, and with as hot as the Golden Eagles were shooting, it made the Lady Tigers' deficit escalate quickly.
Tech shot 56.3 percent from the field in the first quarter, then hit its first eight shots in the second before ending the stanza with a 78.6 percent clip. The Golden Eagles were 66.7 percent from the field in the third and 50 percent in the fourth to finish the contest with a 63.5 shooting night. Tech shot 10-for-20 from 3-point range and 7-for-11 at the line.
The Golden Eagles also kept the ball moving, collecting 27 assists on 33 made buckets, led by freshman Peyton Carter's six assists. Carter and Mackenzie Coleman also collected a game-high seven rebounds out of Tech's 40 – nine offensive and 31 defensive.
"We were very unselfish with the ball tonight with 27 assists," Rosamond said. "That's phenomenal, and we had a lot of people involved in that. Peyton Carter led us with six, Jordan Brock had five, Jada Guinn, Ansley Hall and Maaliya Owens had four, and a lot of others had one. We had a lot of people sharing the basketball."
Tech never trailed in the contest, outscoring TSU 23-6 in the first 10 minutes, then added another 23 to the Lady Tigers' 11 to take a 46-17 lead at the half. The third quarter went 22-10 to Tech, then 15-7 in the fourth.
Tech returns to action Thursday as it travels to Austin Peay for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information, file
