A-State outshot Southern and forced 21 turnovers to defeat the Jaguars 68-45 in the opening round of the WNIT.

“Well, overall it was just a good performance by us against a good team,” A-State Head Coach Brian Boyer said. “Southern had 19 wins and you know that they were a quality opponent just from watching film. They were a very persistent group and they were again tonight.”

A-State got going early thank to Khadija Brown-Haywood, who scored 17 points in the first half. Brown-Haywood had 15 of the Red Wolves 28 points with 4:11 to go in the first half, and, at that point, was outscoring the entire Southern team 15-14.

A-State was very persistent on the defensive end tonight, and made it hard for Southern to every get into a rhythm on offense. The Red Wolves finished the game with 10 steals and forced 21 total turnovers for the game.

“Defensively, I liked the way that we played in the first quarter defensively,” Boyer said. “We were doing everything that we had wanted to do.”

The Red Wolves led 32-18 at the half, and never looked back. A-State held southern scoreless the first five minutes of the third quarter, and outscored the Jaguars 18-11 in the third quarter.

“In the third quarter, it took them over five minutes to score,” Boyer said. “Defensively, it was a really good performance tonight, and we needed that because we just didn’t shoot the ball well.”

The Red Wolves led 50-29 going into the fourth quarter of play, and took their starters out midway through the quarter.

A-State finished the game shooting 43.9 percent from the field, while holding Southern to 30.6 percent (19-62) shooting fro the field. The Red Wolves scored 20 points off of Southern’s turnovers and also led in second chance points 16-8.

The Red Wolves were led in scoring by Khadija Brown-Haywood, who finished the game with 19 points on 9-18 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds, five assists and three steals. This was the 18th game this season Brown-Haywood recorded a double-double.

The three time Sun Belt player of the year, Aundrea Gamble, finished the game with 14 points, eight assists and three steals, while Britney Gill finished with 12 points on 4-8 shooting and one steal.

The Red Wolves will now travel to El Paso, Texas to take on UTEP in the second round of the WNIT on Monday. UTEP defeated Abilene Christian 66-62 tonight. Tipoff for Monday’s game is scheduled for 8 p.m.