MOBILE, Ala. (2/20/20) – On Thursday morning at the Mitchell Center, the Arkansas State women's basketball team dropped an 87-71 decision to South Alabama in Sun Belt Conference action.
 
A-State (9-16, 6-8 SBC) forced 21 turnovers while allowing just nine, but the Jaguars (13-13, 8-6) shot 53.4 percent from the field (46.2 percent from three) to get the win.

"We have to stop digging ourselves into holes," head coach Matt Daniel said. "Our sense of urgency has to be better in the first half. We played them even in the second half, and we have to continue developing that. We'll go to practice tomorrow, get ready for Troy and try to fix it as much as we can and as fast as we can."
 
Four players scored in double figures for the Scarlet and Black, led by 15 apiece from Morgan Wallace and Payton Tennison, who tied for the team lead with five rebounds. Jireh Washington added 12 points while Peyton Martin posted an 11-point outing. As a team, the Red Wolves shot 37.8 percent (28-of-74) from the field and connected on seven of 28 three-point attempts. A-State notched 14 steals and dished out 18 assists on the day.
 
Damaya Telemaque led four Jaguars in double figures with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting (4-of-4 from three). Savannah Jones scored 16 points, while Shaforia Kines and Kennedi Centers added 13 and 12, respectively. Antoinette Lewis was the game's top rebounder, hauling in 10 to go along with eight points. As a team, USA out-rebounded the Red Wolves 42-26 and blocked eight shots.
 
The Jaguars opened by scoring the game's first nine points, making their first four shots before a nice post move by Martin turned into a layup to put A-State on the board. USA's lead grew to 14 on threes by Telemaque and Kines, but A-State cut it to 17-8 on a layup by Washington and a trey by Wallace prior to the first-quarter media timeout.
 
USA worked it back out to a double-digit lead with under two minutes left in the quarter, but Jada Ford knocked down a deep trey followed by a fastbreak layup by Kayla Williams to give South Alabama a 25-16 lead after one quarter.
 
South Alabama opened the second on a 6-2 run to stretch the deficit out to 31-18 but the Red Wolves clawed back by cutting it to a seven-point contest with a 6-0 run on baskets by Tennison, Starr Taylor and Ford. After Devyn Lowe knocked down a three with 4:18 to go, A-State held the Jaguars scoreless for nearly three minutes as jumpers by Tennison and Martin cut it to a 10-point game with under two minutes to go. USA responded with back-to-back threes by Telemaque and Kines to take a 45-29 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
Washington drove in a layup to start the second half, but USA then went on a 12-3 run to expand its lead to 23 at 57-34 with 6:27 left in the quarter. The Red Wolves surged back with a 6-0 run capped off by a Tennison trey to make it 57-40 with 4:42 to go. A-State continued to chip away at the deficit, picking up a pair of buckets off turnovers to make it 62-48 and force a USA timeout with 3:07 left in the third.
 
A three-point play by Wallace with 35 seconds to go capped off third-quarter scoring and a 5-0 run for A-State, as the Jaguars led 70-53 with one quarter to go.
 
The Red Wolves opened the game's final quarter with four points and cut the deficit down to 13 on a layup by Washington. USA then went on a 10-2 run to lead 82-61 with 4:21 to go. Tennison knocked down the last three buckets for A-State, two of them coming from beyond the arc.
 
Arkansas State returns to action Saturday, Feb. 22, with a 4:00 p.m. road contest at Troy. The game will be aired live on ESPN+ while the broadcast can be heard on the EAB Red Wolves Radio Network on 95.3 The Ticket, as well as 970 AM and 96.9 FM.

For the latest on the A-State women's basketball program, follow @AStateWB on Twitter and @astatewbb on Instagram, while also liking the team's Facebook page at Facebook.com/RedWolvesWBB.