Women’s Basketball Earns Hard-Fought Win Over Tulsa
FAYETTEVILLE – In a clash between two undefeated teams on Monday night, Arkansas women’s basketball edged out Tulsa, 79-70. On a cold snowy night in Northwest Arkansas, both teams were on fire from deep with a combined 23 3-pointers, while Erynn Barnum led all scorers for the third time this season with a career-high 27 points. Arkansas has started the year 3-0 for the second time in the last three years, while handing Tulsa their first loss of the season, as the Golden Hurricane fall to 2-1.
Tulsa struck first, but then went 0-for-4 from the field, which allowed Arkansas to cruise to an 8-0 run. That run was capped off by one of Makayla Daniels’ four 3-pointers on the night. Rylee Langerman then daggered one from deep and after another Daniels triple, Arkansas led 15-5 with 4:33 left in the field quarter. Out of the media timeout, Tulsa went on a 4-0 run, but back-to-back steals by Langerman set up opportunities for the Razorback offense. After another Daniels 3-pointer, Arkansas extended its lead to 15. Tulsa then started to heat up from deep, making back-to-back 3-pointers, as the Razorbacks led 24-15 after one quarter.
The Golden Hurricane continued the hot shooting out of the break, cutting the lead to six after another 3-pointer. Samara Spencer began to heat up from deep, registering 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to help Arkansas climb back up by 10 with seven minutes remaining in the first half. Arkansas fell in a drought for some time, going 0-for-5 from the field, but still was ahead by nine with 4:24 left in the first half. After Arkansas’ scoring drought, the Razorbacks shot 4-for-5 from the field, but that didn’t stop Tulsa from shooting 4-for-4 from the field to end the half. Arkansas still led, 41-34 going into the locker room.