New faces are leading SAU women

SAU freshman Ariana Guinn drives past a couple of Southeastern Baptist Lady Chargers during the Lady Muleriders’ 40-point victory Tuesday night. The will head to Rolla, MO, Saturday for a 1 p.m. game against Missouri S&T.
SAU freshman Ariana Guinn drives past a couple of Southeastern Baptist Lady Chargers during the Lady Muleriders’ 40-point victory Tuesday night. The will head to Rolla, MO, Saturday for a 1 p.m. game against Missouri S&T.

The SAU Lady Muleriders scored 77 points Tuesday night and 60 of those came from players who were not with the program a year ago.

True freshmen Ariana Guinn of Hot Springs led with 17 points and Jerica Bell of Watson Chapel followed with 16.

Guinn shot 80 percent from the free-throw line and 50 percent from the field. Bell made 7-of-12 shots from the field

Junior college transfers Lena Maledon added 15 and Tamera Shaver finished with 12. The duo combined for five 3-pointers and Shaver was a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.

First-year head coach Adam Collins said he was overall please with the Lady Muleriders’ first victory, but noted he’s looking for his athletes to play hard and remain focus for an entire game.

“We didn’t do that at times. That’s something we need to do no matter the score,” said Collins.

Before Tuesday’s victory, the Lady Muleriders dropped a pair of games on their home court.

“All three games, we have started extremely slow. We’ve missed a lot of easy shots around the rim and had some wide-open 3-pointers not go in. The girls are doing an excellent job of getting in position for the open shots, but we have to finish,” he said.

According to Collins, the Lady Muleriders are at their best when they are energetic and flying around.

“We have some young and energetic kids, and at times it takes a minute for us to get to that point,” said Collins.

Due to illness, SAU was without one starter Tuesday night and had another injured two minutes into the game.

“We are trying to find out who we have and who is going to suit up that night. We only have 11 players on the roster and one is out until January. Here we are trying to press and run with eight or nine players. I know the girls get tired, but it’s going to continue being a process of building for us. It’s not going to happen over night,” said Collins.

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