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JONESBORO — Wynter Rogers recorded her first double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds while leading Arkansas State to a 83-52 victory over Radford on Monday night in the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at First National Bank Arena.
Rogers shot an efficient 8 of 10 from the floor, and four of her 10 rebounds came on the offensive end. Zyion Shannon also scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while Mia Tarver finished with 10 points.
With the win, Arkansas State advanced to the “Super 16” round of the tournament, where it will take on the winner of Tuesday evening’s matchup between South Alabama and Purdue-Fort Wayne.
“For us to come out and play the way that we played, I think it speaks to the preparation of how these young women practiced and how locked in and focused they were,” ASU Coach Destinee Rogers said. “We were together — 19 assists, only 12 turnovers. We did a really good job of keeping (Radford) off the (offensive) glass with their size.”
The Red Wolves (25-9) won the rebounding battle 43-37 and held the Highlanders to just five offensive rebounds. Arkansas State forced 23 turnovers and came up with 12 steals. The team has now forced 909 turnovers this season, which is an all-time record for a Sun Belt Conference program.
“We didn’t let them get to what they wanted to get too,” Destinee Rogers said. “Hats off to my staff. I thought that they did a really good scout on Radford and our young women were prepared to go today.”
ASU opened with a stingy defensive effort, holding Radford (23-13) to just two made field goals in the first quarter. Wynter Rogers scored six points in the opening quarter as the Red Wolves jumped out to a 16-6 edge.
“We hit a couple threes and then that left me open,” Wynter Rogers said of her offensive production. “Me and the guards were just kind of playing off each other a lot and we’ve been working on that all week.”
A three-point play from Crislyn Rose extended Arkansas State’s lead to 37-17 with just less than three minutes to play in the first half. The Red Wolves outscored the Highlanders 26-16 in the second quarter and went into the halftime break ahead 42-22.
Radford trimmed the deficit to 49-38 following a three-point play by Ellie Taylor at the 5:33 mark of the third quarter, but it got no closer the rest of the way. The Red Wolves went on a 34-14 run over the final 15:15 to secure the 31-point victory, marking the program’s largest WNIT win.
“We kept pressuring them and we kept forcing them to take the shots we wanted them to take,” Destinee Rogers said. “What the math says is once you get to about the middle of the third quarter, if we do our job with the ball pressure, your legs are probably going to start to feel heavy and it’s going to be a lot harder to make some of those shots.”
Radford shot 17 of 50 (34.0%) from the field and 4 of 19 (21.1%) from three-point range. Joi Williams made all four of the three-pointers for the Highlanders and finished with a game-high 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting. Georgia Simonsen chipped in 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting
The Red Wolves made 32 of 74 (43.2%) field goals and 8 of 30 (26.7%) three-pointers. Arkansas State outscored Radford 46-22 in the paint, 17-4 on the fast break and 32-12 from the bench.
Arkansas State’s Super 16 matchup and location will be announced late Tuesday night following the South Alabama at Purdue-Fort Wayne matchup. With 25 wins this season, the Red Wolves entered a three-way tie for the second-most wins in a season in program history.
“We got 25 wins with an opportunity to go get 26,” Destinee Rogers said. “I say why stop now? Let’s keep going. If we can play the way we played tonight, I think we’re going to be really hard to beat.”
