For 49 seasons, there’s almost always been a “next one” for the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns…a distinctly gifted player who picked up the mantle for one of the most successful programs in women’s college basketball history and carried it forward.
Logan Young’s achievements at Dover High School and preseason praise from ATU head women’s basketball coach Dave Wilbers sparked the question: is Young the “next one?”
It’s early, but 10 games in, the 5-foot-10 freshman forward is providing some evidence she could be.
Young scored a career-high 31 points in a 99-71 victory over Ouachita Baptist University on Saturday. She also nabbed a career-high five steals as the Golden Suns (8-2 overall, 4-2 Great American Conference) won for the fourth time in their last five games and earned a share of second place in the GAC women’s basketball standings.
“It’s what I see every day,” said Wilbers when asked about Young after the Ouachita game. “She’s just a consistent player. She shows up every day. She’s in here every morning working out and trying to get better. She can score in a lot of different ways.”
This week, Arkansas Tech will travel to the Sooner State and play GAC doubleheaders at Oklahoma Baptist University (5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8) and Southern Nazarene University (1 and 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10).
Live coverage of the games in Shawnee and Bethany will be provided by KCJC 102.3 FM, the River Country KCJC website and www.arkansastechsports.com.
The Golden Suns are 3-0 away from Tucker Coliseum this season.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re playing home games or road games in our league this year,” said Wilbers. “Every team in our league is a good team, so you can kind of throw out home court advantage this year.”
ATU’s women are averaging 84.8 points per game, which leads the GAC and ranks top 10 in NCAA Division II. The 99 points the Golden Suns scored against Ouachita were their most in a conference game since they put 115 points on the board against Southern Arkansas University on Jan. 14, 2021.
Arkansas Tech’s women forced Ouachita into 30 turnovers on Saturday. It marked the fifth time this season the Suns have forced 27 or more turnovers in a game. ATU leads GAC women’s basketball in turnover margin (+8.1 per game), turnovers forced (22.9 per game) and steals (11.3 per game) this season.
“The team is getting better because we’re working them out here,” said Wilbers. “We had three or four of the most brutal practices we’ve had in the 19 years I’ve been here (after the holidays). We got after it. We ran miles. On the flip side, the players came back (from the holidays) in pretty good shape. I could tell they all worked out, but it’s not the same as practicing with the team. It was not fun in here, but the players fought through it.”
The Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys are fighting through a different form of adversity at the moment. Four consecutive losses have dropped their record to 4-8 overall and 2-4 in the GAC.
This week will provide the Wonder Boys with no respite. Oklahoma Baptist’s men are 10-2 overall and 4-2 in league play. Southern Nazarene’s men are 11-1 overall and 5-1 in the GAC. Neither the Bison nor the Crimson Storm has lost a home game this season.
“I wish I could sit here and say we deserve to win, but the mental lapses…I don’t know how to clean it up,” said Mark Downey, ATU head men’s basketball coach, following a 61-55 loss to Ouachita Baptist on Saturday. “I’m trying. We have to mature and grow up as a group. I have to figure out how to get them there. When it gets down to it, the team that deserves to win and does things the right way usually wins. I’m not getting my guys to do things the right way yet, and I’ve got to fix it.”
Talk to you on the radio.
Tech Tidbits is a column written by Sam Strasner, ATU director of university relations and radio play-by-play voice for ATU football and basketball.
