Friday, March 13
UALR Rolls Texas State to Advance to SBC Championship Game
NEW ORLEANS – The UALR women’s basketball team left no doubt about its dominance over Texas State this season, defeating the Bobcats by at least 20 points for the third time this year on Friday afternoon.
The Trojans built their lead early in the half and cruised to an 87-44 victory over Texas State in the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals on Friday afternoon at Lakefront Arena, clinching a spot in the league’s title game for the sixth time in school history and first time since 2013.
UALR (27-4) will face No. 2 seed Arkansas State in the Sun Belt Championship Game on Saturday at 7 p.m. with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line. The Trojans last won the tournament championship in 2012.
The Trojans also tied a school record for victories with their beatdown of the Bobcats, reaching 27 wins for just the third time in school history and for the first time since 2009-10.
Alexius Dawn was the team’s spark offensively in the first half against Texas State (17-14), hitting five 3-pointers and ending the first 20 minutes with a team-high 18 points. She finished with a season-high 23 points while tying her career record with six 3-pointers. UALR had 44 points at halftime and the team scored what proved to be the game-winning basket 76 seconds into the second half.
Taylor Gault (18 points), Shanity James (17) and Kaitlyn Pratt (10) also reached double figures in scoring for UALR. James had her sixth double-double of the year with 11 rebounds, and her 17 points tied season high. Ka’Nesheia Cobbins also had another impressive stat line, finishing with nine rebounds and four assists to go along with her 5 points. Pratt contributed eight boards as well, and Gault led the team with two steals.
The team’s 43-point margin of victory was its best this year and its highest margin of victory since defeating Incarnate Word by 48 points in December 2013. The team’s 87 – a season high – was the most since Jan. 16, 2010 when it scored 88 against Louisiana. That number is also tied for the fourth-highest total in Joe Foley's 12 years at the helm of the program.
The Trojans got off to a blazing start in the game, scoring their points in groups of three. Dawn hit two 3-pointers and Gault added another in the first five minutes, and Gault and Cobbins each had and-1 layups. Those five 3-point plays combined with a James layup gave UALR a 17-4 lead at the first media timeout just 4:45 into the game. The Trojans had a 12-0 run in that span before Kileah Mays ended things with a Bobcats layup. Texas State would never be within single digits again.
UALR’s lead continued to balloon over the rest of the half, as the Trojans continued to push in transition. Keys and Pratt got easy layups while Gault hit a jumper, and UALR had a 25-6 lead at the second media break.
But the real star in the first half continued to be Dawn. She made two more 3-pointers during the rest of the half including a banked-in shot in the final minute of the period, reaching 18 points at the break.
UALR held a 44-23 advantage at halftime and led by as many as 24 during the half. The Trojans’ 44 points marked the team’s third-best offensive half of the year. The team shot 53.3 percent from the field (16-30) while holding Texas State to 37.5 percent shooting (9-24). The Trojans also had nine assists at the break spread out across five different players.
The second half saw more of the same, with UALR extending its lead to more than 40 points and doubling up Texas State with a 70-35 lead at one point. The Trojans were 1 point shy of doubling the Bobcats’ total at the end of the game.
Keys had five point and two rebounds off the bench, while Kiera Clark tallied four points, two assists and three rebounds. Monique Townson banked in a 3-pointer late, and Lexus Williams also hit a field goal in the final minute.
The win was UALR’s fourth straight against the Bobcats. During the contest, James moved up to sixth all-time at UALR in defensive rebounds, and Gault scored the 1,900th point of her career.
Next up for the Trojans is the Sun Belt Championship Game on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Arkansas State. The winner of the championship game earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
A-State Returns to Sun Belt Finals
NEW ORLEANS, La. (3/13/15) – The Arkansas State women’s basketball advanced to the Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament finals after a thrilling 63-61 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in the semifinals in New Orleans, La., at Lakefront Arena.
The victory sets up a matchup between the No. 2 Arkansas State Red Wolves and the No. 1 seeded Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans in Saturday’s championship final. The teams split the regular season series, with each team earning a victory on their home court, and this will be the first time that the teams have met in the Sun Belt Conference finals in women’s basketball. The game is set to begin at 7 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN3.com and heard locally on 95.3FM The Ticket and online at AStateRedWolves.com.
A-State led 62-61 with 40 seconds to go after Jaylyn Gordon knocked down a 3-pointer to pull UL-L within a point. Hanna Qedan drove the basket on the Red Wolves’ ensuing possession and drew a foul with nine seconds remaining on the game clock. Qedan hit the first attempt, but missed the second to put Arkansas State up two. The Ragin’ Cajuns drove the length of the floor and Gordon got off a good look, but the shot hit off the rim and fell into the waiting arms of Khadija Brown-Haywood who ran out the final seconds on the clock.
“We had a push at the right time in the second half just to come back and then get ourselves within reach and actually take a little bit of a lead,” A-State head coach Brian Boyer said. “From that point, it was just a matter of hanging on. I can’t wait to go back and watch the last five minutes. It was just a battle. I mean, how many straight back-and-forths did we have? It was almost just a matter of who was going to miss the first shot was going to be the team that comes out short.”
Friday’s game featured 18 lead changes and 10 ties throughout the night. The Red Wolves took the lead for good when 2:01 remaining when Brittney Gill followed a missed Brown-Haywood free throw attempt to put A-State ahead 59-58. The lead to grew to 62-58 with 52 seconds to go after Aundrea Gamble hit three free throws, but UL-L responded with Gordon’s 3-pointer to setup the game’s dramatic finish.
Gamble finished with just eight points, but went 3-of-4 from the free throw line to help seal the victory down the stretch for A-State. Brown-Haywood and Jasmine Hunt led the Red Wolves with 15 points each, while Gill finished with 10 points, six of which came in the second half. Hunt also grabbed nine rebounds on the evening to help A-State win the rebounding edge 33-19.
The two teams went into the halftime break tied at 30-30, but Louisiana-Lafayette went on a 9-0 run to open up a 39-30 lead with 17:14 to go in the game, forcing Boyer to take a timeout before the first media break.
The Red Wolves responded with a 14-0 run of their own to go up 44-39 with 11:57 to go. The Red Wolves defense was outstanding during the run and held the Ragin’ Cajuns scoreless for five-plus minutes and got stops on seven straight possessions. Brown-Haywood erased the Ragin’ Cajuns lead with a pair of free throws at the 13:29 mark and the Red Wolves held their largest lead of the game at 46-41 with 10:51 to go.
It would not last however, as UL-L responded with a 6-0 run to go up 47-46 to begin a span of five straight offensive possessions where the lead changed sides. After leading by nine early in the half, UL-L never led by more than two points for the remainder of the game and was plagued by foul trouble late in the game.
“Well, we’re obviously relieved to get the win – a win against a very good, very talented [UL] Lafayette team,” Boyer said. “It’s a credit to how good this league is this year. Lafayette is every bit of good as anybody in the league, and so is Troy, and you go across the board. What a great [women’s basketball] season we’ve had in the Sun Belt and that’s a credit to that.”
The first half was an evenly matched contest that featured 11 lead changes and five ties. The Red Wolves led for 10:57 during the half, but never held a lead greater than four points at any point during that span. Each team shot over 45 percent from the field, but UL-L did most of its damage where it scored 24 of its 30 points.
A-State relied on shooting from just outside the paint and good contributions from Jamie Ruffins who went 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Brown-Haywood was also 3-of-5 from field, while Hunt hurt the Ragin’ Cajuns with second chance opportunities on the offensive glass.
This will be the fifth meeting all-time between an Arkansas State and a UALR team has met in a Sun Belt Conference Championship final. The four previous meeting all occurred throughout the mid-90s in volleyball with A-State taking three of the four matchups.