Despite their home court advantage, The Lady Hornets took a 68-87 loss to the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith on Sunday afternoon.

At just over two minutes into the game, the Lions led 6-2. Junior guard Gracie Gilpin tied the game 10-10 with a three-pointer, but UAFS took the lead for good with a 10-3 run. The Hornets managed to score the five final points of the first period to make the score 20-17 going into the second. 

A three-pointer by graduate student guard Katie Horyna got Emporia within 28-25 with 7:02 left in the half. The Lions responded again with a 13-3 run to take a 13 point lead with 2:14 left. The rest of the quarter the teams played even, but the Lions went into halftime leading 45-32. 

Emporia State started the second half scoring the first 11 points in the third quarter. This run brought the Hornets within 45-43 with 7:09 left in the period, and caused the Lions to call two timeouts. UAFS followed up by scoring back to back possessions to increase their lead 49-43.

The teams traded scores over the next few possessions, but the Lions brought up the score in their favor 59-51 with a pair of free throws. Gilpin brought the score within 63-67 by scoring her sixth three-pointer of the night, but UAFS finished the third quarter with a 71-63 lead after scoring the final four points of the period. 

The Lions added to their lead with the first basket of the fourth quarter, bringing the score to 73-63. ESU responded with another three-pointer, made by Horyna, to bring ESU up to 68-75 with 4:57 left in the fourth. ESU would not score again for the remainder of the game and the Lions finished on a 12-0 run that brought the score to 87-68 in the game’s final. 

The Emporia State Lady Hornets will be back in action at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 30 in White Auditorium to play against Rogers State.