Earlier this season, on January 18, Tennessee Tech came to the Gentry Center and left with an 86-81 victory. Tuesday night the Lady Tigers visited the Elben Center and, like their matchup earlier in the season were served another defeat, 80-64 in a nearly wire-to-wire manner. The Golden Eagles’ offense was clicking, shooting 57% (29-51) and 50% (7-14) from downtown on the evening.
The Lady Tigers lead early at 1-0 on an Eboni Williams free throw. That lead lasted a mere eight seconds, as a three-pointer from Maaliya Owens put TTU 3-1. They would never trail at another point in the game. The Golden Eagles built as much as an 11-point lead before taking a 25-16 advantage into the second quarter.
The Lady Tigers showed signs of life in the second, drawing to within four points on multiple occasions, however, Tech ended the half with six unanswered points and took a 40-30 lead at halftime.
Falling behind by 13, 47-34 early in the third, the Lady Tigers outscored the Golden Eagles 17-4 over 6:29 to trim the lead to 54-51. Tennessee Tech staved off the comeback attempt, leading 58-53 after three quarters.
An 18-3 spurt from TTU pushed their lead to 76-56 with 2:59 remaining in the contest. The Lady Tigers shot just 4-15 (26.7%) in the quarter, scoring just 11 points as they fell by a final mark of 80-64.
Maaliya Owens led Tennessee Tech players in double figures with 25 points. Anna Walker added 17 points and Regina Grimes contributed 14 points and 5 assists.
In a losing effort, Sanaa’ St. Andre led Tennessee State with 22 points; Zyion Shannon put in 19 and Caitlin Anderson chipped in 15 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
The loss drops the Lady Tigers to 7-16 and 4-9 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Tennessee State returns home Saturday to take on Western Illinois; tip-off is scheduled for 1 pm CST.
