At this rate, Jenny Vining is going to send us scrambling for our thesaurus to find new superlatives to describe her play for the Arkansas Tech women’s basketball team.
Forty-eight hours after scoring a career-high 35 points in a win at North Alabama, Vining continued her siege of the Yellowhammer State on Monday night by lighting up the Alabama-Huntsville Lady Chargers for 41 points in a 98-65 Golden Suns’ victory at Spragins Hall in Huntsville.
It was the highest single-game scoring output by a Tech women’s basketball player since Jan. 4, 1990, when Lanell Dawson scored 42 points against Louisiana College.
Vining’s 41-point outburst makes her just the third different Golden Sun to score 40 or more points in a game.
Dawson and Donna Brunson are the other two. They both did it twice: Dawson with 42 points in that 1990 game against Louisiana College and with 45 points against Oklahoma City on Nov. 25, 1989; Brunson with a school-record 51 points in the 1988 NAIA District 17 title game against Arkansas-Monticello and with 42 points against Henderson State on Jan. 18, 1988.
Dawson and Brunson were both All-Americans at Tech and both are in the Arkansas Tech Hall of Distinction.
Vining was 16-of-26 from the field and 8-of-14 from 3-point range on Monday night. She also had four assists, five rebounds and five steals.
The nationally 24th-ranked Golden Suns took control of the game with a 15-1 run over a span of 4:55 midway through the first half. Tech led 24-11 with 9:25 left in the first half, and the outcome was never in doubt from there.
The Suns held a 49-31 advantage at halftime and then put it away by opening the second half on a 19-4 run.
With the win, Arkansas Tech is 10-0 for the first time since 1985-86 and for just the fifth time in the 33-year history of Golden Suns basketball.
Tech’s Laura Beth Anderson accumulated a stat line that would have grabbed all the headlines on most nights. She scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, made eight assists and took five steals.
Katie Horsman added 14 points for the Golden Suns, while Jessica Weatherford had 10 rebounds and Ashley Chisum made nine assists.
Renita Lewis notched 22 points and Candace Lee had 21 points in a losing effort for Alabama-Huntsville (2-8).
The Golden Suns will be idle until Dec. 30, when they will host Midwestern State (Texas) for a 7 p.m. contest at Tucker Coliseum.
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