Home sweet home.

After a winless start to the season that included four-consecutive, hard-fought, road losses, the UAFS women's basketball team was eager to finally get back to their home confines of the Stubblefield Center.

Their excitement was obvious from the start of Tuesday night's home opener against the Ouachita Baptist Lady Tigers.

UAFS shot a sizzling 57 percent from the field and scored a season-high 29 points in the first quarter to take an early 15-point lead, and the Lady Lions never let up on their way to a 74-49 win.

The Lady Lions shot 48 percent from the field for the game (35 of 73) – they had been averaging only 32-percent shooting from the field during their first four games – and all 10 players who played scored, including three in double-figures.

Senior forward Ellie Lehne led the Lady Lions with 16 points, senior guard Mariah Green had 13 points and sophomore guard Dachelle Terry had 12 points.

UAFS shared the ball, too, dishing out 18 assists as a team. Junior guard Alexsis Brown had a career-high nine assists – the sixth-most assists in a game during UAFS' NCAA Division II era.

The Lady Lions won the rebounding battle for the first time this season, out-rebounding the Lady Tigers by three rebounds (39-36). UAFS collected 12 offensive rebounds that led to 15 second-chance points. Junior guard Tae'Lour Richardson had five rebounds to lead a very-balanced rebounding effort by UAFS.

UAFS' smothering defense created 28 turnovers – almost twice as many as it had averaged over the first four games – that led to 25 points. Green and Brown had four and three steals, respectively.

Ouachita Baptist (2-3), which had won two games in a row after a winless start, shot only 34 percent from the field (19 of 56) and was perfect at the free-throw line (7 of 7). Senior guard Alivia Huell came off the bench to score a team-high 13 points, while sophomore forward Madison Raney came off the bench to add 10 points.

Sophomore forward Eden Crow had a team-leading seven rebounds.

The Lady Lions' home stint was brief. After a short two-day break for Thanksgiving, UAFS will resume play this weekend in the Emporia State Classic at White Auditorium in Emporia, Kan.

UAFS (1-4) will play host Emporia State at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and will play East Central at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

It will be the third classic in as many weekend's for the Lady Lions, who lost to Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian in the Conference Challenge at Volk Gym in Golden, Colo., to begin the season and lost to defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Central Missouri and Pittsburg State in the Pittsburg State Classic this past weekend at John Lance Arena in Pittsburg, Kan.
 
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
UAFS 74, OUACHITA BAPTIST 49
Ouachita Baptist         14        10        12        13        --          49
UAFS                          29        11        18        16        --          74
Ouachita Baptist (2-3): Huell 13, Raney 10, Brittain 8, Wilson 5, Clay 4, Crow 4, Gertson 3, Nixon 2
UAFS (1-4): Lehne 16, Green 13, Terry 12, Elkins 8, Culley 6, A. Brown 5, Gulley 4, McDonald 4, Richardson 4, D. Brown 2