Saturday, February 20
A-State Claims a Share of Regular Season Title with 16th Consecutive Win
ATLANTA, Ga. (2/20/16) – The Arkansas State women’s basketball team secured itself at least a share of the regular season Sun Belt Conference championship with a 85-64 victory over Georgia State Saturday afternoon at the GSU Sports Arena.
Aundrea Gamble scored 31 points and tied a career-high with 11 assists, while Khadija Brown-Haywood added 20 points and 11 rebounds. Jessica Flanery also finished with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc.
“Give Georgia State credit because they did not go away quietly,” A-State assistant coach Deidra Johnson said. “They made some runs at us but our kids handled it perfectly. They were hungry and had the will to win and executed the game plan perfectly to get the job done.”
The Red Wolves opened with the start they wanted and went on a 9-0 run in the game’s opening minutes to take a 9-2 lead after a pair of 3-pointers by Brown-Haywood. Amanda Lawson added a spark in her first game back from injury with eight points in the first half, while Flanery added a pair of 3-pointers to help A-State jump out to a 34-15 advantage with 6:48 to go until half.
Arkansas State held the Panthers scoreless for almost the first five minutes of the second quarter as Brown-Haywood (10) and Gamble (12) each reached double-figures, while Gamble also added seven assists in the half.
Georgia State rallied near the end of the half, however, and used a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 38-28 with one minute to go. A-State went 0-9 from the field during the Panthers’ run and did not score for over two minutes until scored with 18 seconds left on layup to send the Red Wolves into the locker room with a 42-30 advantage.
Georgia State took advantage of its size on the boards and held a 27-17 edge, including 14 offensive rebounds. The Panthers also added 10 second chance points, but A-State was able to offset that with 13 points off 13 GSU turnovers.
A-State opened the second half by scoring 19 points in a little over five minutes thanks to the efforts of Flanery who hit three, 3-pointers in the period. The Red Wolves also helped narrow the rebounding and got within six rebounds with 4:05 remaining in the period.
Gamble scored 19 points in the second half, and finished two off her career-high of 33 on the afternoon. She also tied a career-high with 11 assists and finished with her fourth double-double of the season.
It was also the eighth 30-point-plus performance of her career, which is the second most in school history. She finished the night 11-of-18 from the field and was a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.
A-State shot 50 percent (31-of-62) from the field on the afternoon, and forced the Panthers into 21 turnovers, which led to 27 points on the offensive end for the Red Wolves. A-State also got out in transition and scored 22 fast break points and got nice production from its bench with 14 points.
A-State returns home for the first time in two weeks when its hosts Texas State Thursday, Feb. 25 at the Convocation Center. The game will also be the Red Wolves’ annual Play4Kay “Pink Game” and fans are encouraged to wear pink to the game. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.
Little Rock Edges Georgia Southern to Remain in Second Place in Standings
STATESBORO, Ga. – Clutch free-throw shooting and late-game defense led the Little Rock women's basketball to a tight 50-45 victory over Georgia Southern at Hanner Fieldhouse on Saturday evening.
The win, Little Rock's ninth in a row, was in doubt for almost the entirety of the contest as the Eagles made Little Rock struggle on offense and turn the ball over 21 times.
But in the late game, with Little Rock trailing by 1, it was the Eagles' offense that went cold.
Leading 39-38, Georgia Southern missed eight consecutive shots from the field in the last eight minutes as the Trojans scored the next three points to take a 42-39 lead.
Two free throws by the Eagles' Patrice Butler made it a 42-41 lead for Little Rock with 3:50 to play, but the Eagles could not get a basket to retake the lead. Instead, Shanity James and Kaitlyn Pratt combined for five free throws in their next six attempts, and the Trojans took a 47-41 lead with 40 seconds left to play.
Three more free throws from Alexius Dawn sealed the Little Rock win despite the Eagles making two field goal attempts with under a minute left.
Little Rock (14-11, 12-4 Sun Belt Conference) was led on offense by James and her 22 points. She also topped the team with seven rebounds. Pratt was the only other scorer in double figures for Little Rock, coming up with 10 points and five rebounds. The Eagles (7-18, 4-12) had just one double-figure scorer: Butler with 12.
The Trojans remain in second place in the Sun Belt Conference standings with the victory, their fourth straight against the Eagles. Little Rock – who has never lost to Georgia Southern – now has 12 conference victories for the ninth straight year.
But Saturday's victory was in doubt almost from the very start.
Georgia Southern scored the first points of the night, but Little Rock followed with an 8-0 run that saw the Trojans take the lead. James and Sharde' Collins had 4 points each during that run, and the Eagles went five minutes without scoring and had six turnovers in the quarter. When the home team finally did score, it went on a smaller 5-0 run of its own to cut the Little Rock lead to 8-7. A Dawn layup broke that run and gave the Trojans a 10-7 lead entering the second quarter.
The second quarter belonged to the Trojans at first, as James got 5 straight points and Collins followed with two free throws to give the visitors an 18-9 lead. But from there, Georgia Southern took over. The Eagles scored the final 12 points of the half, taking a 21-18 lead into the break. Little Rock had 11 total turnovers in the first half and shot just 2 of 8 from the field in the second quarter.
Georgia Southern would hold that lead the first nine minutes of the third quarter, with Little Rock carrying a narrow 36-35 edge into the final quarter because of a Dawn 3-pointer with 56 seconds left on the clock.
The first two minutes the fourth quarter saw the lead change four different times before the both teams got cold from the field. The home team finished the fourth quarter just 3 of 14 from the field, but Little Rock was even worse in the quarter, making just one shot – a Pratt layup with 4:03 left – on five attempts.
The difference came in the Trojans' aggressive play. Little Rock earned 10 free throws in the final 2:39 that accounted for their last 8 points in the victory.
Dawn scored 8 points in the game, and Collins added 6 while also grabbing four rebounds. James and Pratt led the way with three steals each, and James had two blocks.
During the contest, Dawn scored her 600th career point while Pratt earned her 50th steal.
After two weeks on the road, the Trojans return home on Thursday for the first of three straight home games. Little Rock tips off its homestand with a 5:15 p.m. game against UT Arlington. The contest will be the Trojans' annual Pink Game.
Troy Dominates Overtime to Beat Appalachian State
BOONE, North Carolina – The Troy women’s basketball team saw a lead slip away, but dominated overtime in a 100-89 win over Appalachian State at the Holmes Center on Saturday.
Troy (13-12, 8-8) held the Mountaineers to 1-of-7 shooting in overtime, outscored them by 11 points, 15-4, and outrebounded them by nine, 12-3. Troy scored 100 points for the sixth time this season, a program record, behind a combined 61 points from Ashley Beverly Kelley and ArJae’ Saunders.
Beverly Kelley scored 32 for the 10th 30-point game of her career and also dished out a game-high eight assists. The senior, who leads the Sun Belt in scoring, hit a 3-pointer in the game’s first seven seconds, setting the tone for a 5-of-10 effort from deep. She hit 12-of-27 from the floor and moved into second in Troy history and 17th in Sun Belt history with 1,825 career points.
Saunders scored a career-high 29 points, pulled in seven rebounds and recorded five assists. The junior was 11-of-15 from the free throw line as she scored in double figures for the 10th time in the last 12 games.
Beverly Kelley scored 10 in the first quarter and Troy raced out to an early lead, pulling ahead by as many as 22 in the second quarter. The Trojans led by 16 points, 44-28, at halftime, but Appalachian State (8-17, 5-11) didn’t go away in the second half.
The Mountaineers shot 10-of-18 in the third quarter, 11-of-17 in the fourth, and eventually chipped away at the lead. App State took its first lead, 84-83, with 1:32 to go on a layup by KeKe Cooper, but Beverly Kelley put Troy right back ahead on the next possession with a baseline jumper to make it 85-84 with 1:16 to go.
App State got two offensive rebounds on the next possession with Bria Carter getting fouled on the last. Carter made one of two free throws, tying the game, 85-85 with 50 seconds left. Troy missed a 3-pointer late in the shot clock on its next possession and App State came away with possession with 4.2 seconds remaining.
The Mountaineers, inbounding in front of their bench, tried to lob the ball to the rim, but the Trojans batted the lob away and forced overtime.
In overtime, Troy scored the first seven points, capped by a Beverly Kelley 3-pointer. The Mountaineers finally scored on a layup by Joi Jones, then got within four, 93-89, on two free throws from Jones with 2:29 to go.
That is when Troy’s Ta’Kierra Gibbs scored five straight points for Troy, her only five of the game, to put things out of reach, 98-89, with 1:17 to go. Gibbs and Kristen Emerson were the key players in overtime as Emerson grabbed seven of her 12 rebounds in the extra period.
Caitlyn Ramirez was the third Trojan to score in double figures, adding 14 points, but she fouled out with 5:57 left in the fourth, forcing Emerson to play much of the game’s final 10 minutes.
Jones led Appalachian State with 22 points on 10-of-18 shooting. Madi Story scored 19 points, all in the second half as the catalyst for the Mountaineers comeback. The Mountaineers shot 45 percent (33-of-74) for the game overall, 32 percent (7-of-22) from deep and 16-of-24 from the line.
Troy hit 44 percent (35-of-80) overall, 37 percent (10-of-27) from deep and 20-of-28 from the line. Troy forced the Mountaineers into 26 turnovers and scored 25 points off of them.
Troy returns home on Thursday when it will host UL Lafayette at 5:15 p.m. at Trojan Arena. That is Troy’s second to last home game as ULM will visit next Saturday on Senior Day.
Veal Nets 25, Fields Double-Doubles in Win at Texas State
SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team split the 2015-16 regular season series with Texas State, outlasting the Bobcats, 59-47 at Strahan Coliseum Saturday afternoon.
The win improved the Cajuns record to 18-7 and 11-5 in Sun Belt Conference play this season. Louisiana holds a 6-4 record on the road with the victory.
Senior guard Keke Veal poured in a game-high 25 points to go with four rebounds and five assists in all 40 minutes of the contest. Sophomore forward Simone Fields picked up her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
"I think everyone did their role today, which is what we always talk about," Ragin' Cajuns head coach Garry Brodhead said.
"Defensively, we did really well – Kia [Wilridge], Jodi [Quinn] and Brooklyn [Arceneaux] did an awesome job of clogging up the middle of the floor," Brodhead added. "We moved the ball really well and took advantage of some nice shots. We always talk about attacking the lane and today we did that."
The first half was a back-and-forth affair. The Bobcats held an early 8-5 lead, but the Cajuns rattled off 10 straight points, the last four from Veal.
Texas State closed out the first quarter on an 11-2 run, taking a narrow 19-17 lead into the second quarter.
The Bobcats' lead reached 22-17 at the 8:47 mark of the second quarter after a three-pointer by Taeler Deer.
Redshirt junior Sylvana Okde answered with a three of her own to pull the Cajuns to within 22-20 with just over seven minutes to play in the second.
Veal gave the Cajuns the lead back with consecutive layups with 5:19 to go.
After Texas State tied the game at 24-24 on a layup by Deer with 4:33 left in the second quarter, neither team scored for the remainder of the half.
Veal scored 13 of her points in the first half. Fields led all Cajuns with five rebounds.
The third quarter was headlined by three tied scores in the first 3:35. Fields' layup with 5:43 on the clock regained the lead for UL at 33-31. The Cajuns maintained their advantage for the remainder of the third quarter and took a 42-37 lead into the final stanza.
Louisiana kept its foot on the gas in the fourth quarter, pushing its lead to double-digits at 55-44 with 2:51 remaining. Their lead reached as many as 13 points after senior Brooklyn Arceneaux spashed a jumper with 1:38 to go.
The Cajuns shot a sizzling 53.8% (14-of-26) from the floor in the second half and outrebounded Texas State 14-11 in the third and fourth quarters. The Cajuns deposited 7-of-8 shots from the charity stripe (87.5%) after halftime.
The Cajuns are off until next Thursday, Feb. 25 when they visit Troy for a 5:15 p.m. tip-off.
Lady Mavs Buckle Down Defensively, Defeat ULM
ARLINGTON, Texas – It was a defensive battle that saw UT Arlington achieve win No. 600 in program history as the Lady Mavericks downed ULM 40-32 on Saturday at College Park Center.
UTA moved to 13-12 overall and 8-7 in the Sun Belt after being victorious on Play 4 Kay night. The Lady Mavs wore pink socks and gear for their cancer awareness game.
The Lady Mavs held the Warhawks (9-16, 3-13) to just nine second-half points, including four in the fourth quarter. UTA shot 35.4 percent from the floor, while ULM hit at just a 22.4-percent clip.
ULM held a two-point advantage at the break as each team struggled to get things going. The Lady Mavs overcame a brief five-point deficit in the second – ULM's largest lead of the game – with a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the floor.
The Warhawks were unable to produce against UTA's defense in the second half. ULM was just 3-27 shooting, knocking down a lone field goal in the fourth quarter.
Turning point
With a seven-point lead, UTA's defense held the Warhawks scoreless over the final 3:29. The final stretch included three blocks by UTA, including a pair from Rebekah VanDijk.
Key Stats
After turning the ball over 22 times against Louisiana on Thursday, UTA held a 16-10 advantage in points off of turnovers as each team had 17 apiece. … Following a career-high 14 points on Thursday, Toma Zaleckaite made it back-to-back double-digit scoring nights with a team-high 12. … The seven total team blocks tied for second best for the season, behind eight achieved on Nov. 20.
Notable
VanDijk, totaling three blocks for a second consecutive game, moved into sixth all-time in blocks in UTA history. VanDijk has 94 in her career and is five short of Tonya Johnson (1988-90) with 99. … UTA improved to 5-1 in February – its highest number of wins in a month this season to clinch a winning month for the first time this season.
Up next
UTA hits the road for a trip through Arkansas beginning on Thursday at Little Rock. The two-game trip concludes at Arkansas State on Saturday. UTA closes the season with three games at College Park Center beginning with Texas State on March 1.