RUSSELLVILLE, ARK. – The East Central University women's basketball team fell 63-98 to No. 15 Arkansas Tech in the final regular-season game of the 2015-16 season. 

The loss does not mean the end of the year for the Tigers (10-16, 10-12 GAC), as they go into the 2016 Great American Conference Tournament as the No.7 seed and will face No.2 Harding, Friday, March 4 at 2:15 p.m. in Bartlesville, Okla.

2016 GAC Champoinship Tournament Page

ECU was led by sophomore Alexa Adair, who tallied 20 points and two assists.  Sophomore Tori Huff added 11 points and two steals.  Sophomore Lexie Chancellor added career highs of nine points and three assists.

The Golden Suns (23-3, 21-1) started the game with an 8-2 run in the first two minutes, but the Tigers fought back to cut the lead to two (6-8) over the next 1:30.  However, ATU pushed back ahead with a 10-2 run, for an 8-18 advantage, and kept the pressure up to take a 13-25 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter started out very slow for both teams, with only five points being scored by ATU in the first four minutes.  The Tigers picked up the intensity over the remaining time and played even with the Golden Suns, but still went into the intermission with a 26-40 deficit.

ATU took over in the third quarter, and in the first two minutes had the lead over 20 points (28-50).  They kept the momentum on their side and ended the quarter with a 44-68 lead.

The Golden Suns didn't let up on the pressure through the final 10 minutes and led by as many as 35 on the way to the 63-98 victory.

It was a strong shooting night at the charity stripe for both teams, with ECU going 21-of-24 and ATU 27-of-32.  The key difference came in overall shooting, where the Golden Suns shot 59.3 percent (32-of-54) to a 33.3 percentage (19-of-57) by the Tigers.

ECU's trip to the 2016 GAC Tournament Championship is the fifth-straight for the Tigers in the five seasons of the GAC.