Robinson’s Career Night Leads Troy Past Arkansas State
TROY, Alabama – Freshman Kayla Robinson scored a career-high 23 points as the Troy women's basketball team scored 35 points in the third quarter to pull away from Arkansas State 90-77 on Thursday in Trojan Arena.
Robinson, whose previous career-high of 19 points came on Dec. 14 against Nicholls State, scored her entire allotment in the final three quarters on 11-of-17 shooting. Senior ArJae' Saunders finished with 19 points and four assists. Caitlyn Ramirez turned in her 13th double-double of the season with 13 points and 12 rebounds, the 12th consecutive game with 12 or more points.
With both teams struggling to shoot the ball in the first quarter, Arkansas State managed to break down the Troy defense long enough to string together a 15-0 run after the Trojans scored the first five points of the contest. A pair of 3-pointers by Amanda Mendoza kept Troy conscious and trailing by only six, 16-10, at the end of the period.
Robinson burst onto the scene midway through the second quarter to jump start the offense with consecutive baskets giving Troy a 26-22 lead. Robinson missed her first two shots, but misfired on just four of her last 15.
The Trojans dominated in the paint outscoring Arkansas State 48-22. Paced by 17 points off turnovers, Troy scored 35 points in the third quarter alone. After hitting just 23 percent from the field in the first quarter, Troy shot 41.3 percent for the game.
QUOTABLE
"It was definitely good to get this win at Trojan Arena against a good team," Troy head coach Chanda Rigby said. "We are so proud of the effort we had from freshman Kayla Robinson as our high scorer, she did some really great things for us. She hasn't been completely healthy, but we saw some really big strides from her this week. What I'm really proud of is that in the second half the team looked to really be having fun together for the first time in a really long time."
UP NEXT
Troy plays its final home game of the regular season on Saturday against league leaders Little Rock. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. and the Senior Day ceremony will be held at halftime of the men's game, which is set to immediately follow the conclusion of the women's contest.
UTA Reaches 20-Win Mark With Victory Over ULM
MONROE, La.-- An impressive performance by junior Rebekah VanDijk helped clinch the program its first 20-win season since 2008-09 and clinched a first-round bye in next week's Sun Belt Championship tournament.
The Lady Mavericks routed ULM 83-47 on Thursday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum to push the team's winning streak to three games and help maintain second in the league standings. UTA improved to 20-7 overall and 13-4 in the Sun Belt, while ULM fell to 5-23 and 2-15. The win was UTA's fourth consecutive over ULM.
With Texas State's loss to Louisiana, UTA is guaranteed at least a top-3 seed in next week's Sun Belt Championship tournament in New Orleans. The Lady Mavs' first game will come in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 9. Tickets are available at UTATickets.com.
VanDijk connected on her first eight attempts of the game to quickly move up the UTA all-time charts. The Nazareth, Texas native surpassed Shalyn Martin for 11th in Lady Maverick scoring history. VanDijk finished with 24 points on 11-14 shooting and 10 rebounds. The double-double was the 11th of the season for the junior and her 36th of her career. VanDijk, heading into Saturday with 1,181 career points, is just 14 points away from entering the all-time top-10 list for UTA.
Crystal Allen and Christina Devers joined VanDijk in double figures. Allen, appearing to be unable to miss in the opening half, finished with 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Devers produced 14 points, making six of her 11 attempts.
The night went similarly to the previous meeting at College Park Center in January with the UTA defense causing havoc for the Warhawks. UTA forced 23 turnovers and turned it into 34 in points off turnovers. The Lady Mavs entered sixth in the nation in turnovers forced per game at 21.9.
The Lady Mavs left no doubt of their intentions with the best defensive performance since quarters were introduced for women's basketball last year.
UTA held the Warhawks without a field goal in the opening period, a first for the defensive side in program history in a quarter, and the offense was just as equally impressive. Behind VanDijk's perfect start to the game through her first eight shots, UTA burst out to a 21-2 lead heading into the second.
ULM briefly mounted a run to start the frame, but the 6-2 effort was matched by UTA's spurt of its own as it turned ULM over on three consecutive possessions.
The Lady Mavs shot 50.0 perfect from the field in the opening 20 minutes, holding ULM to just 26.1 percent and forcing 15 turnovers.
The Warhawks were about to put together a run of offense during the third to match the UTA effort. ULM had its closest quarter of the contest despite UTA still leading the period 21-18.
KEY RUNS
First Half
Just four minutes into the game the Lady Mavs had a double-digit advantage. VanDijk was able to put in three easy lay ins, while Devers knocked down her opening 3-pointer from the corner for a quick 9-0 lead. After a pair of free throws from the Warhawks, UTA was right back at it and went up to its double-digit lead to force ULM to an early timeout.
Second Half
With the 26-point advantage after the break, the Lady Mavericks didn't let its foot off the pedal in the third quarter, building the lead up above 30 points during a stretch. ULM was able to mount a run of its own with UTA going two minutes without a point midway through the third. However, UTA still managed to outscore ULM by three.
KEY STATS
UTA turned the ball over just 12 times to ULM's 23. UTA picked up 12 off of steals. ... Ericka Mattingly had her third consecutive game with at least six assists as she dished the mark on Thursday. ... UTA shot 41.2 percent from 3-point land, two coming from Devers, Breck Clark and Lauren Billie.
UPCOMING GAME
UTA concludes the 2016-17 regular season with a trip to Louisiana on Saturday featured on ESPN3. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. UTA, having already clinched a bye, is battling for positioning in next week's tournament pending Thursday's results.
Little Rock Tops Jaguars for Fourth Straight Win
MOBILE, Ala. – The Little Rock women's basketball team earned their fourth straight victory on Thursday evening, defeating South Alabama 50-44 at the Mitchell center.
The Trojans (22-7, 16-1 Sun Belt Conference) shot just 33 percent from the field on the night but held the Jaguars (9-19, 4-13) to a 29 percent shooting effort to win by 6.
Sharde' Collins led the Trojans with 13 points and also had a team-high seven rebounds. Kaitlyn Pratt was Little Rock's other double-digit scorer with 11 points. Kyra Collier had 8 points, five rebounds and two assists.
With a narrow 3-point lead of 31-28 entering the fourth quarter, Little Rock built up a double-digit lead over the period's first three minutes to keep South Alabama at bay. Little Rock got two free throws from Pratt, a Pratt layup, a Collier runner and a Collins 3-pointer to start the period. That was part of a 9-2 Trojan run that forced a South Alabama timeout and gave the Trojans a 10-point lead, their largest since early in the second quarter.
The Jaguars got back within 4 points late in the period, but Little Rock hit its free throws late – making six in the final 30 seconds – to stave off South Alabama's comeback attempt.
In the first half, Little Rock struggled with six turnovers and shot just 35 percent from the field. But the defense held South Alabama to just 25 percent shooting and forced eight Jaguar turnovers to give the Trojans a 25-21 lead at halftime.
Up next, Little Rock will close the regular season with a trip to Troy. The Trojans and Trojans will tip off at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Cajuns Come Up With Big Win Over Texas State, 62-43
LAFAYETTE – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team jumped out to a fast start and didn't look back on the way to defeating Texas State 62-43 on Thursday at the Cajundome.
Louisiana (17-9, 11-6 SBC) used 20 points from Jaylyn Gordon while Nekia Jones added 12 points to help the Cajuns secure an important Sun Belt Conference win.
Texas State (16-12, 11-6 SBC) is now tied with Louisiana in fourth place in the Sun Belt standings with one game remaining in the regular season for each team.
If Louisiana defeats UTA on Saturday and Troy loses to league-leader Little Rock, Louisiana will secure the No. 3 seed in the Sun Belt Conference tournament regardless of what Texas State does at ULM.
The Cajuns stormed out to a 9-0 lead when Gordon made two free throws with 6:06 left in the first quarter. Simone Fields made a layup with 29 seconds to go in the first period to give Louisiana an 18-3 lead at the end of the first frame.
The Bobcats couldn't find an answer in the second quarter and trailed 31-9 when Gordon knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:41 to go in the second period.
Louisiana held a 35-14 lead at halftime and kept up the fast pace in the second half. Troi Swain connected on a 3-pointer to put the Cajuns in front 45-22 with 6:08 left in the third quarter.
Texas State trimmed the lead to 48-33 following two free throws by Kaitlin Walla with 42 seconds left in the third frame.
Swain hit another 3-pointer to give Louisiana a 59-37 lead with 5:22 remaining in the contest. The Cajuns cruised the rest of the way to seal the win.
Taeler Deer, Amber Jones and Erin Peoples led Texas State with 8 points each.
Louisiana will return to action when it hosts UTA on Saturday, March 4 at 5 p.m.