Saturday, December 12
Warhawks Never Trail in Win over Nicholls State
MONROE, La. – Alayshia Hunter scored 21 points, the defense allowed a season-low 17 first-half points, and ULM emerged from a seven-day final exam break to win 69-57 over Nicholls State on Saturday night in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
The Colonels’ Hope Pawlowski laid one in with 2:19 to play that cut ULM’s lead to 61-55, the closest it had been since the 7:35 mark in the second quarter. However, Aundrea Davis would come right back with a jumper that kick-started an 8-0 run which ultimately staved off the rally for good.
"I thought we had a couple of nice performances with Alayshia's double-double, and Aundrea Davis was really solid with 10 points and a big basket late in the game to give us some separation," head coach Jeff Dow said. "Ashley Aune had two big three's and 12 points which I think is a career-high."
Nicholls State weathered the storm that ULM put out in the first half. The Colonels had a 7-2 run coming out of the locker room, but Aundrea Davis took over on the next two possessions. She found Alayshia Hunter on a heads-up pass over the defense for an easy layup and followed with a three-pointer on the ensuing possession, the Warhawks’ first of the night. That score upped the lead to 40-29 with four minutes left in the third quarter.
"We had to come out with a dominant mindset on the boards, and for us to come out plus-10 and lead us into some second-chance points with an 18-7 margin," Dow said. "It was a good win, you never know what you're going to get coming out of final exams with some rough spots, but we will take it."
Hunter outscored the Colonels for the first nine minutes of the game before Ashley Aune knocked down a pair of free-throws with 1:09 remaining. ULM led 10-7 at that point. The largest Warhawk lead of the night came with 38 seconds to play in the first half, as Hunter’s lay-up made it a 31-15 contest.
The Warhawks had a 20-6 halftime paint points advantage en route to a 40-24 one for the game. The squad also never trailed.
"Coach Dow told us to be tougher [coming out of halftime]," Hunter said. "We couldn't be soft and we had to play as five, otherwise it would fall apart. His big thing is that if we close in, it's a fist. If one person is not doing their job, that can break up the rest of the floor. That one finger can't do it by itself. It has to be all five."
ULM returns to action on Wednesday night when it plays McNeese State at 5:30 p.m. CT.
Brown-Haywood Carries A-State to Victory
JONESBORO, Ark. (12/12/15) – Led by Khadija Brown-Haywood’s third career double-double, the Arkansas State women’s basketball team cruised by Alcorn State 82-50 Saturday night at the Convocation Center.
Brown-Haywood scored 14 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead four players in double-figures on the night. Aundrea Gamble led all A-State (5-2) players with 15 points, while Amanda Lawson and Brittney Gill each added 10 points.
A-State was red hot from the field in the first quarter, and used a 15-0 run early in the period to build a double-digit lead. The Red Wolves went 7-of-9 from the field during the run and held an 18-2 lead with six minutes to go.
The Red Wolves’ defense was a key factor in the early lead. The Braves committed seven turnovers in the first quarter that lead to 10 points in transition for A-State. Gamble scored 11 of her 15 points in the frame, including a 3-pointer to start the game, as A-State held a 31-10 lead after the first 10 minutes.
“The first quarter we were really good defensively and it allowed us to get out in transition and 31 points in a quarter is a lot of points,” A-State head coach Brian Boyer said. “From that point on we weren’t able to get out in transition and had to score in the halfcourt and I was pretty disappointed with that in the second quarter, but we picked it up in the third quarter and overall I was pleased with this effort. We were able to get a lot of players into the game and was able to rotate some people in and out of the game.”
Arkansas State rode it’s momentum into the second quarter as the Lady Braves added six more turnovers to give them 13 at half.
The Red Wolves extended the lead 65-33 at the end of the third quarter, and then stretched its lead to 37 in the fourth quarter, but Alcorn State rallied late to get the deficit down to 32 by the end of the game.
Alcorn State was limited to 30.6 percent shooting from the field, A-State drained 45.6 percent of its field goal attempts. The Red Wolves also held a 46-39 advantage of the boards and five 3-pointers to the Lady Braves’ one.
A-State returns home Wednesday Dec. 16 when it hosts Austin Peay at the Convocation Center. The game is set to begin at 11:30 a.m.
Cajuns Coast to Victory over Dillard, 84-36
LAFAYETTE -- A 24-3 first quarter scoring surge propelled the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team to an 84-36 victory against Dillard on Saturday afternoon for their fourth straight win.
All 12 players that entered the game for the Cajuns (6-1) scored, and four reached double-figure points, led by senior Kia WIlridge, who poured in 18. Junior Gabby Alexander added a season-high 11 points off the bench. The non-conference win was the seventh in the past eight contests for the program overall.
Louisiana shot a sizzling 58.6% (34-of-58) from the floor in the game. The first quarter shooting provided a 21-point lead as the Cajuns made 10 of their first 13 shot attempts (76.9%). The first 17 points of the game belonged to Louisiana in the first 6:23. Junior guard Jaylyn Gordon capped off the first quarter scoring with a three-pointer with five seconds remaining on the clock. The Cajuns received eight bench points in the opening stanza and collected 14 points in the paint and 10 more off Dillard turnovers. Nine of Wilridge's 18 points came in the first quarter.
The Cajuns maintained their hot shooting in the second quarter, scoring six quick points to move ahead, 30-3 with 8:10 on the clock. Lousiana's lead reached 30 points at the 5:14 mark after sophomore Simone Fields hit the second of her back-to-back shot attempts.
A 9-4 run by Dillard cut the lead to 41-16, but the last five buckets of the half belonged to the Cajuns, who took a 50-16 lead into halftime. The Cajuns outscored Dillard, 20-6 in the paint and tallied eight points on fast break opportunities. The team's shooting stroke remained strong in the second quarter, finishing the half at 75% (21-of-28).
The third quarter lead reached as many as 45 points at the 1:59 mark. Gordon scored seven points in the quarter, while Keke Veal, Jodi Quinn, Taylor Washington and Alexander all made buckets.
Louisiana's second unit dominated the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of the team's 16 points, headlined by Alexander's seven.
Dillard was held to single-digit points in the first (3) and third (7) quarters. The Cajuns defense stymied the Bleu Devils to 7.7% shooting (1-of-13) in the opening quarter.
The 48-point win tied the program's largest margin of victory at the Cajundome (95-47 win over Savannah State on Dec. 4, 2004).
"I thought we executed on the offensive side today," Ragin' Cajuns head coach Garry Brodhead said. "We moved the ball and played well as a team. We pressured the ball and when we play our game we are a pretty good team.
"It was a complete team effort," he added. "A lot of players got playing time today and I think we are building a team and that's important for our program going forward."
The Cajuns will prepare for UC Santa Barbara who comes to town Tuesday, Dec. 15 for an 11 a.m. tip-off at the Cajundome.
Mountaineers' Upset Bid Falls Short at UNC
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Appalachian State University women’s basketball team (1-6) gave the North Carolina Tar Heels all they could handle, but the upset bid fell short Saturday afternoon, 69-58, in Carmichael Arena.
App State Starters: #2 Farrahn Wood, #10 Joi Jones, #23 KeKe Cooper, #34 Madi Story, #42 Mia Marshall
North Carolina Starters: #5 Stephanie Watts, #10 Jamie Cherry, #24 Destinee Walker, #30 Hillary Summers, #34 Xylina McDaniel
A season-high three players scored in double figures with Kaila Craven tallying a team-high 15 points, just one shy of her career best. Cooper poured in a season-high 12 points on an efficient 5-for-7 shooting from the field to go along with nine boards, just one rebound short of her second double-double of the season. Story put in an all-around performance with 11 points, four boards and three assists.
Ashley Bassett-Smith and Marshall dominated the boards combining for 22 off the glass. Bassett-Smith set a new career-high racking up 12 rebounds while Marshall snagged 10 boards. Along with Cooper, the trio recorded 52.5 percent of the team’s rebounds, as App State held a 59-44 edge over UNC (6-4).
Shooting and free throws once again doomed the Apps, firing up a season-high 80 field goal attempts but converted just 27.5 percent to the Tar Heels’ 41 percent from the floor. North Carolina also doubled Appalachian’s 16 free throw attempts with 32 foul shots.
App State’s defense forced North Carolina into a season-high 23 turnovers while converting the miscues into 21 points. Appalachian also brought down 21 offensive boards to UNC’s eight, and the reserves outscored UNC’s bench 26-4. App State also assisted 13 of its 22-made field goals, which is the second consecutive game Appalachian has assisted on over 50 percent of its field goals.
The Apps and the Tar Heels both struggled from the field in the first half with both squads shooting under 32 percent from the floor. It wasn’t until the 7:54 mark that either team would score with Story hitting the back end of a trip to the free throw line.
All UNC needed was a 10-0 run over the next 1:21 to go ahead, 10-1, before eventually going into the second quarter with a 17-6 advantage. The Apps wouldn’t go away quietly outscoring the home team 12-9 in the second period.
Like the first quarter, both teams didn’t score for the first 2:59 of the frame. Trailing 19-9 with 3:40 left in the first half, a 6-2 spurt from App State sliced the deficit to six, 21-15, thanks to three-straight points from Bria Carter followed by a Wood trifecta. Appalachian outscored UNC 9-7 over the run to keep the gap to single digits, 26-18 before halftime.
The Apps came out on a roll to start the third quarter with an 11-6 run over the first 3:49 to bring the score to three, 32-29. Five different players, including a pair of treys from Craven and Wood spearheaded the spurt while Wood, Marshall and Story all chipped in with buckets.
North Caroline would respond with a run of its own outscoring the Mountaineers 12-2 to take its largest lead at 13, 44-31. However, Appalachian dug deep during the rest of the contest to put the Tar Heels on the edge.
UNC went into the fourth with a 49-38 lead and at one point held a 53-41 advantage with 8:04 left in the game. App State finally started getting shots to fall with five-straight made buckets that were highlighted with two apiece from Story and Cooper. The 10-2 run trimmed the deficit to four, 55-51, with 5:21 left in the contest.
Both teams traded baskets the rest of the way, preventing the Apps to go over the hump. Marshall’s layup with 1:04 left gave the Apps a chance to get a stop-and-score to put App State within one possession, but UNC’s Jamie Cherry hit her only 3-pointer to put the Tar Heels up by eight en route to the win.
Cherry led all scorers with 20 points while Stephanie Watts led UNC with 12 rebounds.
App State will return to the Holmes Center on Thursday against Richmond at 7 p.m.