It is a rare privilege for a college basketball coach — particularly in the transfer portal era — to look down the bench and see two senior guards who have combined to appear in more than 180 career games…and all of them at their current institution.
No one has to tell that to Dave Wilbers, Arkansas Tech University head women’s basketball coach. He’s grateful every time he turns to make a substitution and sees ClaraGrace Prater and Hayleigh Wyrick ready to enter the game.
“It’s a fantastic luxury,” said Wilbers, who has led the Golden Suns to a 10-2 overall record and a 6-2 mark in Great American Conference play so far this season. “We probably wouldn’t be here without players like that who have that experience. They all want to start and they all want to play 35 minutes, but those two have been coming off the bench and are doing a great job with their roles. They have played very solid, both of them. Hayleigh hits shots, and I always have faith in Clara that she’s going to play good defense. She really takes it personal.”
ATU will host East Central University (5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15) and Southeastern Oklahoma State University (1 and 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17) for a pair of GAC basketball doubleheaders at Tucker Coliseum in Russellville this week.
Tickets are available at www.arkansastechsports.com/tickets.
Arkansas Tech’s women are tied for second place in the GAC standings. They are one game behind front-running Northwestern Oklahoma State University with seven weeks remaining in the regular season.
The Golden Suns proved during their road trip to the Sooner State last week that they can win playing multiple styles. ATU outpaced Oklahoma Baptist University 92-84 in an offensive-oriented game on Thursday before grinding out a 63-55 win at Southern Nazarene University on Saturday.
Arkansas Tech held SNU to 24 percent shooting from the field. It was the best field goal percentage defense figure of the 2025-26 season for the Golden Suns.
Now, as they prepare for four consecutive games at Tucker Coliseum, the Suns are hoping to be greeted by a vocal and supportive home crowd.
“We need a good crowd,” said Wilbers. “These guys deserve it because they’re working hard.”
The Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys (4-10, 2-6) dropped an 82-75 decision at Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday and suffered a 62-39 loss at Southern Nazarene on Saturday. The Wonder Boys led 23-22 with less than 16 minutes remaining at SNU, but a 20-2 Crimson Storm run propelled nationally seventh-ranked Southern Nazarene to the victory.
“I’m sorry to Arkansas Tech, all of our fans and all of the people who support us,” said Mark Downey, ATU head men’s basketball coach, after the loss at Southern Nazarene. “You expect more out of my program. I’ve tried to be more positive and more uplifting, and we still don’t handle adversity. The wheels just fall right off, and when you play a tough team like (SNU), they punch you in the mouth.
“The fruits are found in the valleys,” continued Downey. “You have to go through some hard things to get where you want to be. Man, this is one of the harder things, career wise. We have a lot of good coaches and a lot of good institutions (in the GAC), and they’re all trying to do the same thing. We ran it pretty good a couple of years ago, and no one is going to take it easy on us when we’re in this situation. Let me just tell you this…they better get their licks in now.”
Live coverage of all four ATU basketball games this week will be provided by KCJC 102.3 FM, the River Country KCJC website and www.arkansastechsports.com.
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.
