The fourth-ranked Arkansas Tech Golden Suns basketball team opened the 2011-12 regular season last Thursday with an outstanding 115-59 victory over Central Baptist at Tucker Coliseum.

The victory extends Tech’s home winning streak to 37 consecutive games dating back to the 2008-09 season and also ran Tech’s win streak in season openers to four straight.

This streak dates back to the 2007-08 season. The 37 game home win streak is the second longest active streak in Division II basketball.

Golden Suns Head Coach Dave Wilbers said following the game, “It was a great first game for us tonight. We had a fantastic crowd and the atmosphere was great and our players really responded.”

“Everyone was making the extra pass and really pulling for each other,” said Wilbers

The Golden Suns started out with an early 9-0 lead and never took the foot off the gas, as they took a 54-27 lead to the locker room at the half.

In the first half, Tech shot 54 percent from the field and committed just eight turnovers, while the defense held Central Baptist College to 30 percent shooting from the field and forced 15 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

CBC could never get the ball rolling offensively, and shot 36 percent (24-for-67) from the field for the game committing 28 total turnovers.

Meanwhile, the Golden Suns finished the game with 22 steals and 19 offensive rebounds.

The Suns finished the night shooting 56 percent from the field and 38 percent from the three-point line.

Reaching the century mark on a lay-up by sophomore guard Breana Williams of Memphis, Tenn. with 4:47 left in the game.

The Suns lead eventually grew to as much as 58 points on a lay-up by freshman guard Haley Stinnett of Cotter with 1:46 left in the contest.

The Golden Suns scored 100 points in a season opener for just the second time in school history and first time since scoring 108 points in the 2009-10 opener against CBC.

Five players finished the night for Tech with double figure scoring efforts.

Senior All-American forward Natalia Santos of Sao Paulo, Brazil led the way with 18 points and added eight rebounds in the win.

In addition, junior forward Jessica Weatherford of Bonnerdale posted a double-double of 14 points and a career-high tying 16 boards, while junior guard Roselis Silva from Caracas, Venezuela ran the offense most of the night as she scored 16 points and four assists in her Golden Sun debut.

Senior forward Katie Horsman of Fairfield Bay also added 11 points, while senior forward Samanta Ludwig from Toledo, Brazil added 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

The Golden Suns welcome to Tucker Coliseum as they host the University of New Orleans Privateers in a 2 p.m. game Saturday.

Also on Saturday, the Wonder Boys men’s basketball team travel to Oklahoma City, Okla. to take on MidAmerica Christian with tipoff set for 7 p.m.