Young lifts Lady Muleriders to win over Cotton Blossoms

SAU’s Kisi Young (2) dribbles against UAM, while Lizzie Moore (21) crosses. The two former Magnolia Lady Panthers led Kansas City Kansas Community College to a national juco championship two seasons ago.
SAU’s Kisi Young (2) dribbles against UAM, while Lizzie Moore (21) crosses. The two former Magnolia Lady Panthers led Kansas City Kansas Community College to a national juco championship two seasons ago.

Southern Arkansas (1-1) got its first win of the basketball season earlier this week with a 19-point performance by senior Kisi Young.

The Magnolia native didn’t play the season-opener at Henderson State and the Lady Muleriders’ second contest was canceled. Against the UAM Cotton Blossoms three nights ago, Young led SAU to a 72-66 victory. She shot 70 percent from the field and connected on 5-of-7 from the free-throw line.

“Position wise, Kisi has been moved around and did a great job. Though she had only five rebounds in the game, I felt like she had more,” said head coach Adam Collins.

Against UAM, Collins used a five-player rotation most of the night.

“You really need 14 or 15 [athletes] to play the way we do. We had those moments where we got tired and didn’t play defense as well,” said the coach.

SAU opened a 7-2 advantage early and Young’s bucket at the 2:45 mark made it 12-2.

After leading 16-10 following one period, SAU carried a 39-27 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

The Cotton Blossoms fought back and tied the game at 43-43 with 3:39 left in the third. Behind Ariana Guinn and a 3-pointer by Kylie Warren, SAU went up by five and led 54-48 after three periods.

The Lady Muleriders built a 13-point lead midway through the final quarter and Young scored the game’s final three points for the six-point victory.

“I think we have improved out 3-point shooting some this year, but overall we have not shot the ball well,” said Collins. SAU was 5-0f-28 from 3-point range against UAM and Warren had two of them. She had three in the season opener.

“We can’t rely on 3-point shooting. We had a 10-point lead and then we miss five shots in a row. That shouldn’t happen,” explained the coach.

Jessica Jones, who also hit two long-range shots, finished with 12 points.

“Her 3-point shooting is major part of our offense. Same for Kenzie Ezekiel. We have to get those two going,” said Collins, adding that getting Tearra Cook and Braydyn Hill will help the Lady Muleriders in other areas.

The coach also noted that Jenae Jennings stepped up and did things that won’t show up in the statistics.

“She didn’t get to play much last season and has battled through injuries. For her to step in and regularly do a good job is something we are happy with,” he mentioned.

Because of COVID-19, the GAC split the conference into two divisions – Eastern (Arkansas) and Western (Oklahoma). Teams (six teams per conference) are playing a 20-game conference-only schedule, which means schools will meet each other four times on the floor.

Some teams have already had to cancel games due to coronavirus issues within their programs.

The Lady Muleriders will return to the court tonight in Russellville against Arkansas Tech, who is 3-0 in the Eastern Division. They will play at Harding on Saturday and OBU on Jan. 21.

“Every time we get to the gym and through the screening process, we are excited because it’s one more game we get to play if the other team makes it,” said Collins.

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