Fayetteville, AR – (Contributed) – Extending its win streak to nine games, three Red Wolves scored 15-plus points to lead the Arkansas State women’s basketball team (11-3, 2-0 SBC) to an 81-72 victory over Arkansas (11-4, 0-0 SEC) Sunday afternoon inside Bud Walton Arena.
The Red Wolves earned their first win over Arkansas since the 2005 WNIT and first win in Fayetteville in program history. It marks the first win over an SEC foe since a 70-69 win at Florida on Nov. 14, 2017. Coupled with an 83-66 win over Houston earlier this season, A-State owns multiple wins over power conference opponents for the first time since the 2006-07 season (Alabama and Oklahoma State).
For the 13th time in 14 outings this season, A-State forced its opponent into 20-plus turnovers. Arkansas finished with a season-high 29 miscues marking the ninth time an A-State opponent had 25 or more turnovers. The Red Wolves took advantage of the turnovers outscoring the hosts 33-12 in points off turnovers.
Mia Tarver connected on six 3-pointers to post a season-high 18 points, one shy of her career high. It marked Tarver’s third game over the last four outings in double figures and fourth of the season. Zyion Shannon added 17 points and Crislyn Rose logged 15 points and a season-high eight assists.
A-State made 11-of-46 (24 percent) 3-pointers with the 11 makes marking the most Arkansas has ever surrendered against a Sun Belt Conference opponent. The Red Wolves shot 32-of-83 (39 percent) overall and knocked down 6-of-8 (75 percent) at the charity stripe. Arkansas finished 39 percent (23-59) from the floor, including 8-of-21 (38 percent) beyond the arc, and converted 18-of-22 (82 percent) at the stripe.
Rose landed a soft jumper to open the Red Wolves’ scoring. Despite making one of the first eight three-point attempts, the Red Wolves came out of the timeout locking down the Razorbacks for nearly four minutes of scoreless play to take the lead. In the last three minutes, D’Arrah Allen landed a triple and a last-second layup to lead the team’s scoring in the first quarter with five points.
Arkansas scored on their first possession out of the break but the Scarlet and Black’s full-court press had the Razorbacks in fits as Shannon fueled a 15-2 Red Wolves run. Shannon nailed a pair of threes and a mid-range jumper across the five-minute stretch. Rose left A-State with a 10-point lead at half with a three on the final possession.
A-State began the second half with a 7-1 run, which was then answered shortly with four points from Arkansas. The Razorbacks whittled away the deficit back down to eight with just a minute remaining in the quarter, but that didn’t last long. Tarver and Marlie Dickerson immediately answered with threes to bring the lead back to double-digits. The Red Wolves went into the final quarter up 65-43.
A-State worked the lead up to 19 with just five minutes remaining and worked down the clock as Arkansas added points at the free throw line and beyond the arc. Shannon added another seven points to her total in the fourth with the last points coming in the last 30 seconds.
UP NEXT
Arkansas State returns to conference play with a game at Southern Miss on Thursday, Jan. 1, at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, and live stats can be found at astateredwolves.com/stats.
