A-State Women's Basketball Earns Road Victory at Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (11/14/17) – The Arkansas State women’s basketball team earned its first victory over an SEC opponent since 2007 in a 70-69 victory over Florida Tuesday evening at Exactech Arena.
Jada Ford scored a game-high 17 points, including the go-ahead bucket with 25 seconds to go, as the Red Wolves (1-1) picked up their first victory of the season. Peyton Martin added 15 points and six rebounds off the bench and Akasha Westbrook rounded out the box score with 14 points.
A-State shot 38.4 percent (28-73) from the field, while Florida knocked down 51 percent (26-51) of its shot attempts. Both teams knocked down eight 3-pointers, while the Gators finished 9-of-13 from the foul line and the Red Wolves went 6-of-10.
Florida (1-1) turned the ball over 23 times, while A-State limited itself to just 11 miscues. The Red Wolves also scored 24 points off the Gators’ turnovers and got 40 points from its bench.
The game featured 10 lead changes and 11 ties.
How It Happened (First Half):
A-State shot a blistering 43.8 percent in the first quarter and used a 6-0 run to take an 8-5 lead early on. The Gators were bothered by foul trouble in quarter, particularly on the offensive end where they were called for three offensive fouls.
Florida tied the game at 10-10, but Payton Tennison and Madison Heckert knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to push the advantage to its largest of the half at 16-10. The Gators were able to cut the deficit to 17-14 at the end of the first quarter, but struggled to take care of the basketball and finished the opening frame with eight turnovers.
The Arkansas State bench provided a spark with 17 first half points and allowed the Red Wolves to lead for most of the second quarter. Florida tied the game before the media timeout at 22-22, but Peyton Martin, one of nine Red Wolves to score, answered on the next trip down the floor to give A-State the advantage back.
The Gators took the lead into the locker room, however, when Haley Lorenzen knocked down a triple with 44 seconds to go in the half. The Red Wolves tried to answer when Starr Taylor stole the ball with four seconds to go but could not get a clean look at the basket.
Arkansas State shot 36.1 percent (13-36) from the field, while Florida made 46.2 percent (12-26) of its attempts. The Gators turned the ball over 11 times, while A-State had six miscues.
How It Happed (Second Half):
Arkansas State trailed by two with 4:35 to go in the game when Jada Ford knocked down a 3-pointer to go up 64-63 and the Red Wolves never trailed in the game again. The trey sparked a 7-0 run that was bookended by two baskets by Ford to put A-State ahead 68-63 with 3:08 to go.
Florida cut the deficit to three on a jumper by Delicia Washington and Haley Lorenzen made 1-of-2 free throws to get the Gators within 68-66 with 47 seconds to go.
Ford answered on the next possession when she drove the base line and put up a tough shot in traffic that fell to give the Red Wolves a 70-66 with under 30 seconds to go. The Gators answered again when Funda Nakkasoglu hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds to go to get within one to setup a strange sequence of events to end the game.
Florida, who had committed just two fouls in the fourth quarter, allowed the clock to run down to 5.6 seconds before committing a foul. With still two fouls to give, the Gators forced a turnover on the inbounds pass on a five second call and quickly called timeout to advance the ball.
On the inbounds play Dyandria Washington immediately took a 3-pointer that missed the mark, but the Florida nearly tipped in the rebound before Westbrook secured the rebound and was fouled as the clock ran out. Upon an official review, it was determined the clock had expired before the foul was committed to give A-State the one-point victory.
Arkansas State played a solid game on the defensive end throughout the night and forced Florida into five straight turnovers during a stretch in the fourth quarter that allowed them to erase a three-point deficit and take a 61-59 lead with 6:58 to go in the game.
Notables:
A-State won its first game against an SEC opponent since Nov. 18, 2007 when it defeated Alabama 49-40.
A-State is now 15-19 all-time against SEC member schools.
This was Arkansas State’s first victory over Florida in five tries.
Akasha Westbrook scored in double-figures for the fifth time in six games.
Peyton Martin reached double-figures (17 points) for the first time in her career.
Quoting Coach Boyer:
“My biggest thing with this group tonight was that we played hard all night. It feels good and it helps when you hit shots. It was good to have Jada back out there and knocking down shots, but I’m telling you this group just played their hearts out defensively. What we talked pregame was that we had to use our quickness and get their post players away from the basket and we did that.”
“My number one key in the locker room was that we had to rebound against this bunch and we had 20 offensive rebounds to their 13 and that is a great job of staying disciplined by us.”
Up Next:
The Red Wolves continue their swing through the Sunshine state with they take on South Florida Friday night. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. in Tampa.
Coastal Edged by UNCG, 60-54, at HTC Center
CONWAY - The Coastal Carolina women's basketball team continually tried to fight back from a single-digit deficit throughout the fourth quarter, but could not overcome UNC Greensboro as the Spartans handed the Chants their first loss of the season, 60-54, Tuesday night at the HTC Center.
Coastal evens its record at 1-1 early in the season, while UNCG remains unbeaten with a 3-0 record.
Jas Adams led all players with 19 points, her second straight game scoring in double figures. The senior guard went 7-of-20 from the field with four three-pointers, and added a point from the line. She also hauled in eight rebounds and recorded an assist and takeaway.
DJ Williams likewise notched double-digit points for the second straight game, scoring 14 on 4-of-9 from the field with five free throws.
Alise Davis was one of two players in the game with double-digit rebounds, leading Coastal with 10. The other was UNCG's Ije Ajemba, who led the game with 11 rebounds while scoring 11 points for the night's only double-double.
Leading the Spartans scoring efforts was Brandi Fier with 18 points, followed by the 14 of Alexus willey. Te'ja Twitty rounded out UNCG's four double-digit scorers.
Both sides played tight defense in the opening quarter as Coastal was forced into nine turnovers and UNCG seven. That resulted in the Spartans holding a slim 12-10 advantage after the game's first 10 minutes. Williams and Adams each had four points for the Chants in the first frame, and Davis paced Coastal on the boards with four rebounds.
The Spartans began pulling away quickly as the second quarter got underway, outscoring the Chants 12-2 over the frame's first three and a half minutes. Alexus Willey powered the Spartans' run, hitting two three-pointers and a short jumper for eight points. UNCG then went cold from the floor, hitting just one its nine attempts for the remainder of the half, allowing Coastal to climb back from a 12-point deficit. The Chants finished the final 2:38 of the half on an 8-1 run, resulting in a 27-23 UNCG lead at the break.
Coastal continued to chip away at UNCG's lead throughout the third quarter while shooting over 50 percent from the field. Adams' hand stayed hot early in the quarter, adding to her 10 points from the first half with a three-pointer and layup. A streak of six straight points by the Chants evened the game at 38-38 with 3:07 remaining in the quarter, and the score remained knotted going into the fourth. Williams had the first four points in the streak, and Janae Camp knocked down a pair of free throws to close it out.
Coastal overtook the lead briefly in the first minute of the final quarter, but it was lost shortly after as UNCG's Brandi Fier hit a short jumper. The Spartans held on to that lead for the remainder of the game as Coastal was unable to close the gap. UNCG made six of 12 attempts from the field over the final 10 minutes, and hit six of 10 attempts from the line down the stretch to close out the contest.
The Chants return to the HTC Center on Saturday to host UNC Wilmington for a 2 p.m. game.