Wednesday, Nov. 26
UALR Gets Defensive in Win over ORU
LITTLE ROCK – The UALR women’s basketball team held its opponent to under 50 points for the third consecutive game and set a new school record in the process on at the Jack Stephens Center on Wednesday night.
With a 54-43 victory against Oral Roberts, the Trojans have now started a season with four straight wins for the first time in program history. All four of the team’s wins this season have also come back double figures.
The contest was very tight for the first 27 minutes, but with UALR leading 29-28 early in the second half, the Trojans took over. The team went on a 17-4 run over a six-minute stretch, turning a close contest into a 14-point lead.
Shanity James led UALR with a season-high 14 points – including the team’s first 9 of the evening – and also had five rebounds. Kiera Clark had season highs in points with 12 and rebounds with 10, picking up the Trojans’ first double-double of the season. The team also got 10 points from Kaitlynn Pratt and six each from Lexus Williams and Taylor Gault, who was playing in her 100th career game.
But as has been the case for all four games this year, the defense was the star of the night for UALR. Oral Roberts center Vicky McIntyre entered the night averaging 12.8 points, 14.3 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game. But the Trojans held McIntyre to just 6 points, eight rebounds and two blocks as they changed defensive looks on her all night and forced her to run. The Trojans actually outrebounded the Golden Eagles 40-34.
Oral Roberts was pressured all evening and committed 24 turnovers that led to 21 UALR points. The Trojans also got a season-best 14 steals. The Golden Eagles were only able to shoot 35.9 percent from the floor and even committed a technical foul out of frustration late in the game.
UALR began the first half strong defensively and was able to build a lead as high as nine points during the half. But the Golden Eagles cut that down to 3 by halftime and kept the contest very close for the first seven minutes of the second period.
But leading by a 29-28 scoreline with 13:18 to play, UALR’s offense finally started clicking and Oral Roberts was unable to keep up. The scoring run began with a Pratt layup and was followed by layups from Pratt and Clark to make the score 36-28 two minutes later.
Gault, Clark and Williams all made baskets in the next three minutes, and another jumper from Clark capped the scoring run that gave the Trojans a 46-32 lead with 7:21 left. Oral Roberts had four missed field goals and three turnovers during that period.
UALR would eventually extend the lead to 18 points at 52-34 on a 3-pointer from Clark with five minutes to play, and all that was left was to drain the final 300 seconds off the clock.
UALR has now won three consecutive games against Oral Roberts and holds a 3-2 lifetime edge over the Golden Eagles. The Trojans have also won 12 consecutive games at the Jack Stephens Center. James picked up her 400th career rebound during the game as well.
Ka'Nesheia Cobbins factored into the result heavily, picking up six rebounds and three steals. Alexius Dawn and Gault tied for the team lead with four steals, and Dawn was the leading assister with four. James had UALR’s lone block of the evening.
The first five minutes went mostly UALR’s way, as the Trojans led 9-4 on all nine points from James. The junior had three free throws in that span to go along with three layups, and Oral Roberts had to call a timeout to regroup.
The Trojans never fell behind in the first half, maintaining leads of at least three points for the rest of the half. UALR was ahead by 9 points with 10 minutes to play in the half, and the Trojans also had a 19-10 lead with 3:34 left in the period.
Though the Golden Eagles managed just 10 points in the game’s first 16 minutes, they scored 7 in the final four to make it a 22-17 advantage for UALR at the break. James led all scorers with 10 points at the half.
After a two-day break for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Trojans return to the court on Saturday. UALR is set to take on Memphis on the road at 11 a.m.
Mavericks Cruise by Lumberjacks, 80-62
ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington asserted itself early and often to remain perfect at College Park Center, defeating Northern Arizona 80-62 on Wednesday night.
The Lady Mavericks ended the opening month of play with a 3-1 overall record and are 3-0 at home to begin the season, a feat UTA has not accomplished since 2008-09. UTA had three reach doubles figures in the contest, including Rebekah Van Dijk with 11 points and 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season.
"We are very excited to be 3-1 and I thought that the girls really fought hard and did things that we asked them to do," UT Arlington coach Krista Gerlich said. "They really buckled down and did things we were working on. We got better as the game went on in finding people in the open court and our posts did a good job in battling to get an opening and it is good to go into Thanksgiving with a win."
Senior Chaun Williams led the team with 14 points from the bench. The Mavs' 18-point win helped avenge a 20-point loss at the hands of the Lumberjacks (2-3) last season, a feat that Williams is proud of to show what this team is about.
"It is exciting and shows that we are actually changing this program around," Williams said. "It means a lot and we are glad that we got the win."
Williams' game-high in points would help UTA outscore the opponents bench 41-24 overall, but the turnover game helped tilt the bout. The Lady Mavs forced NAU to turn the ball over 27 times to UTA's 11, and UTA would pick up a 33-6 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Lady Mavericks came out with energy in the opening half. UTA would score the first five points of the game and would build a lead of 13-6 early in the half following turnovers forced by Williams and Cierra Johnson. The Lumberjacks would hack their way back into the game and take a brief lead, but it was Williams again who would prove too much for NAU.
Williams helped UTA break a run and extend the lead into double digits after the senior hit a 3-pointer, picked up a steal and put the ball in for a quick 5-0 run. The Lady Mavs would increase the lead to 16 points late in the half and went into the break with a 41-26 advantage.
UTA broke open its lead to as high as 24 points late into the second half as the Lady Mavs remained in control. Van Dijk would pick up seven of her rebounds in the second and Morgan Hunt led in the half with nine points on 3-for-4 shooting, adding three from the charity stripe.
The Lady Mavericks will enjoy a brief break before returning to action on Tuesday, Dec. 2. UTA will take on in-state rival UTSA at 7 p.m.
Indiana State Knocks Off South Alabama
MOBILE, Ala. – Indiana State recorded 46 points in the paint Wednesday night at the Sycamores handed the University of South Alabama women's basketball team a 74-53 loss at the Mitchell Center.
"First of all, I thought we came out and got out to a good start to the first media timeout," South Alabama head coach Terry Fowler said. "Indiana State is the defending Missouri Valley regular-season champions. They play a physical style of game. We knew what they were going to do. They just took the ball inside to (Racheal) Mahan. They had 46 points in the paint and that's where the game was won. They made shots that we didn't, and they were getting them all in the paint. That made the game easy for them and loosened up some of their kids to make shots who haven't made shots all year. I take my hat off to them. We have to be better. We have to be tougher and able to withstand the physicality. This was new for our young players. We told them that they were going to see something that they haven't seen. I think their eyes were opened up tonight."
ISU (4-1) outscored South Alabama 46-24 in the paint and shot 54.4 percent from the field as the Sycamores connected on 31 of their 57 shot attempts. Of its 31 made field goals, 23 came inside the paint.
The Jaguars (2-2) will now break for the Thanksgiving holiday, but return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 2 when they host Spring Hill at 5 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.
Breanna Hall led all scorers with her second-straight 20-point outing. Hall finished the contest with 23 points on 7-of-17 shooting. She had all three of USA's three pointers and was 6-for-8 at the foul line.
Juliann Miller and Marquita Daniels also added eight points apiece for the Jags.
As a team, South Alabama ended the game 18-for-54 from the field for 33.3 percent. USA struggled from long range, connecting on just three of its 22 attempts for 13.6 percent.
The Sycamores were led by Racheal Mahan's 20 points and nine rebounds. Mahan was 9-of-12 from the field. Jasmine Grier also chipped in with 13 points.
As a team, Indiana State held a huge advantage on the glass, out rebounding the Jags 47-23.
Indiana State came out attacking the post area and recorded 28 of its 40 first-half points in the paint.
With South Alabama holding an early 8-7 advantage after a bucket by Potts a little over four minutes into the game, Natasha Zurek ignited a 13-0 Sycamore run to help the visitors take a 12-point lead. Zurek got things going with five-straight points and Rhagen Smith capped off the run with a lay up to put ISU up 22-10 with 11 minutes, 28 seconds remaining in the period. Five of the Sycamores six made baskets during the run came inside the paint.
Hall briefly stopped the Sycamore scoring with two of her 12 first-half points on a bucket at the 12:19 mark of the first period of play, but USA's offensive struggles would continue as it would go scoreless again over the next seven-and-a-half minutes.
During that time, the Jaguars would connect on just one of their 14 shot attempts and turn the ball over eight times. South Alabama had 10 turnovers during the first 20 minutes of action.
Due to the offensive woes, USA was unable to take advantage of a five-plus minute scoreless drought by the Sycamores.
With ISU still leading by 20 (34-14) with under four to play, Hall drained back-to-back three's – both coming from the right corner to give South Alabama a spark and trim the deficit to 16. USA had missed its first nine long-range attempts prior to the treys by Hall.
Indiana State though would hold USA scoreless over the final three minutes of the first half and close out the period with six unanswered points – all inside the paint – to head into the locker room with a 40-20 advantage. Grier gave the Sycamores the 20-point lead at the intermission with a jumper inside the lane in the closing seconds.
ISU was on fire during the first stanza, knocking down 18 of its 30 shot attempts for 60.0 percent. South Alabama was just 8-of-26 from the field for 30.8 percent. Mahan had 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting to lead the Sycamores.
Both teams came out of the locker room a bit sluggish over the first 10 minutes of the second half. Miller tried to provide a spark for the Jags, recording seven of her eight points at one stretch to narrow the deficit to 49-32 with under 10 to play, but ISU kept attack the post and the Sycamore lead was back out to 22 (55-33) two minutes later following a free throw by Mahan.
Led by Daniels and Hall, South Alabama made one last charge to get back in the game and cut the deficit to 57-43 with less than six minutes remaining. Daniels and Hall each had five points during that stretch and Daniels sank a pair of free throws at the 5:49 mark to trim ISU's lead to 14.
However, that would be as close as the Jaguars would get the rest of the way as Indiana State reeled off seven points over the next minute to extend its lead back out.
From there, the Sycamores went on to pick up the 21-point victory.