Even through a season that has been uncharacteristic for the Arkansas Tech University women’s basketball program in terms of wins and losses, it has been commonplace for the Golden Suns to play well for 25, 30 or even 35 minutes in a given game.
The problem has been putting it all together for 40 minutes.
The Golden Suns achieved that twice last week, and as a result, they are the owners of consecutive wins for the first time since November after defeating Harding University 65-59 last Thursday and Ouachita Baptist University 63-53 on Saturday.
“I’m real proud of the team and proud of our defense,” said Dave Wilbers, ATU head women’s basketball coach, after the win over Ouachita. “We’re making it tough on teams to take good shots. If we keep doing that, we’ll do well. Another thing is we’re making a lot more free throws. That’s a big improvement on the basketball team. I credit the players. They’ve been shooting a lot on their own. Who knows how many weeks and how many games we have left to play, but we still can get better.”
The Golden Suns (6-16 overall, 4-14 Great American Conference) are three games outside the cut line to make the GAC Tournament with four games remaining in the regular season.
The prospects for the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys (9-15, 6-12) to qualify for the GAC Tournament are slightly better, but they too are a long shot to earn a ticket to Fort Smith March 6-9. The ATU men are two games outside the cut to make the league tournament with four games remaining.
The Wonder Boys almost certainly need to win their final four regular season games and receive some help to earn an opportunity to defend the GAC Tournament championship the program won last March.
“It ultimately is just getting a collective group of individuals to buy in, and we don’t have that collective group,” said Mark Downey, ATU head men’s basketball coach, following a 68-62 loss to Ouachita Baptist on Saturday. “It’s really frustrating. It’s on me from the standpoint of all these guys are my responsibility. I brought them all here. I haven’t been able to get through to this group. I’ll always take responsibility for that.”
Arkansas Tech will host Southeastern Oklahoma State University at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, and East Central University at 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, at Tucker Coliseum in Russellville.
Tickets are available at www.arkansastechsports.com/tickets.
Live coverage of all four games will be provided by KCJC 102.3 FM, the EAB Media Group app and www.arkansastechsports.com.
Talk to you on the radio.
Tech Tidbits is a column written by Sam Strasner, ATU director of university relations and radio play-by-play voice for ATU football and basketball.
