Box Score (HTML)

ADA, Oklahoma – University of Arkansas at Monticello junior women's basketball player Nikki Mullen turned in a career-high 25 points, but East Central's Erin Walling made a jumper in the final seconds to give the Blossoms a 51-49 loss to the Lady Tigers on the road Saturday afternoon.

Both teams led for just below 16 minutes of the 40 minute ball game, and there were five lead changes and seven tie scores in the back-and-forth contest that needed overtime to decide a victor the first time around. East Central won that game back in November and won Saturday's game over UAM by holding the Blossoms scores in the final 1:53.

That was when junior Jordan Goforth made a layup to give the Blossoms (11-9, 9-6 GAC) a 49-47 lead. The Tigers (14-6, 10-4 GAC) answered on a layup by Jalyn Jackson at the 1:23 mark and capitalized off an offensive rebound to set up Walling's game-winning shot.

UAM led by as much as five points with 10:45 remaining in the first half. ECU held an 11-point lead with 11:25 remaining in the second half before the Blossoms posted a 14-0 run over the span of nearly five minutes that culminated with a made jumper by freshman Taylor Collins to put UAM up 43-40 at the 5:47 mark.

The Blossoms finished the game shooting 31 percent from the field (14-for-45). Mullen was 5-for-7 from the field, 3-for-4 on three-pointers and 12-for-12 on foul shots. East Central held UAM's leading scorer, Jordan Goforth, to only four points.

East Central shot 37 percent from the field (19-for-52) and was led in scoring by Erin Walling with 15 points. Taylor Fischer added 13 points for the Tigers.

The Blossoms are back in action on Thursday at home against Southeastern Oklahoma State. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at Steelman Field House.