Troy 83, Appalachian State 72
BOONE, North Carolina – Troy led from start to finish in an 83-72 win over Appalachian State in the Holmes Center on Saturday capping a 4-0 road stretch for the Trojans.
Troy (11-2, 2-0 SBC) have started Sun Belt Conference play with two wins in each of the last three seasons, while the loss snapped Appalachian State's six-game home winning streak.
Four Trojans scored in double figures led by junior Tyra Johnson, who was 4-of-9 from 3-point range. Sky'Lynn Holmes was 5-of-8 for 13 points, while Amber Rivers and Kayla Robinson had 10 each. Rivers has averaged 17 points per game over the last three meetings against the Mountaineers.
South Alabama 88, Coastal Carolina 78
CONWAY, S.C. – The University of South Alabama women's basketball team earned its first Sun Belt win of the season on Saturday afternoon, beating Coastal Carolina 88-78 on the road at the HTC Center.
The Jags started out in control of the contest thanks to a 19-3 run sparked by Savannah Jones in the first, and held a four-point lead at the end of the quarter. After heading into halftime down by five, South put up 30 points in the third quarter to build a lead and did not let Coastal get back into the game, maintaining their 10-point margin of victory for the majority of the fourth quarter.
Jones had herself a career day, starting out the game 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and 5-of-5 from the floor. Jones finished out the game 7-of-14 from three, and 10-of-19 from the floor, on the way to putting up a career-high 30 points.
Texas State 69, Georgia State 60
ATLANTA – The Texas State women's basketball team (7-7, 2-0 Sun Belt) slid past the Georgia State Panthers (7-6, 1-1 Sun Belt) by a score of 69-60 on Saturday afternoon at the GSU Sports Arena behind senior guard Toshua Leavitt's career-high 35 points.
The win bumps Texas State to 2-0 in conference play, winning the opening two games of league play for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
UTA 74, Georgia Southern 53
STATESBORO, Ga. – The UTA women's basketball team led wire-to-wire and earned its first Sun Belt Conference win of the season on Saturday afternoon, defeating Georgia Southern 74-53, inside the Hanner Fieldhouse.
With the win, UTA improves to 9-4 overall (1-1 SBC), while Georgia Southern falls to 5-8 on the season and 0-2 in SBC play. The win also gives UT Arlington the program's 650th win (650-671 all-time) and improves UTA's all-time record against the Eagles to 7-1 and all-time record at Hanner Fieldhouse to 4-1.
Little Rock 62, Louisiana 48
LITTLE ROCK – Senior Ronjanae DeGray and junior Kyra Collier registered double-doubles in a 62-48 win over Louisiana Saturday night to move to 2-0 in Sun Belt Conference play and 6-7 overall. It was the third career double-double for the pair, the second of the season for DeGray and the first for Collier since her freshman year.
DeGray and Collier are the first Trojans to post double-double in the same game since Kaitlyn Pratt and Shanity James accomplished the feat against Arkansas State in the second to last regular season game of the 2015-16 regular season.
Arkansas State 64, ULM 54
JONESBORO, Ark. (1/5/19) – Jada Ford scored a game-high 22 points as the Arkansas State women’s basketball team defeated Louisiana-Monroe 64-54 Saturday afternoon at First National Bank Arena.
Ford led A-State off the bench with a season-high in points thanks to a 6-of-7 mark from beyond the arc to help the Red Wolves move to 7-6 on the year and 2-0 in Sun Belt Conference play. With the loss, ULM fell to 6-7 and 0-2 in the league. Payton Tennison also finished in double-figures with 11 points, while Peyton Martin added 10 points and six rebounds.
Saturday’s game featured 13 lead changes, but none after the 3:23 to go in the third quarter when Trinitee Jackson knocked down two free throws to put A-State ahead 42-41. A 9-0 run in the fourth quarter stretched the lead to double-figures for the first at 58-48 after 3-pointers by Ford and Tennison and a strong effort in a zone defense helped spark the run.