UALR senior guard Taylor Ford had more than a week to mull over one of her worst games. Then, she responded with one of her best.
Ford scored a career-high 24 points and held South Dakota State’s leading scorer, Megan Waytashek, to half of her 12.6 scoring average in UALR’s 66-45 victory over the Jackrabbits on Sunday in front of 1,301 at the Jack Stephens Center.
Ford, who was 0 for 9 in a Dec. 20 loss at Louisiana Tech that preceded a break for the holidays, made 10 of 13 shots from the floor, most of which came while slashing to the basket rather than settling for jumpers.
“Coming off the Christmas break, I was really thinking a lot,” Ford said. “I have to start picking it up. If that means me picking it up and picking my teammates up, then that’s what I’ve got to do.”
Ford was the catalyst for one of the smoothest victories of the season for UALR (5-5), coming against a formidable South Dakota Stateteam, which has four starters and nine contributors from last year’s NCAA Tournament team and owns an 83-79 victory over Penn State, which was ranked No. 12 at the time.
UALR, which scored the game’s first seven points, led 14-2 after less than eight minutes and shot 50 percent from the floor to lead 37-16 at halftime while holding the Jackrabbits (9-6) to 4 of 20 from the floor.
The first-half performance came as a pleasant surprise to Coach Joe Foley, considering the last time the Trojans played they scored 12 points and shot 17.9 percent in the first half of a 50-39 loss at Louisiana Tech.
The list of Trojans who played better Sunday didn’t end with Ford - Kiera Clark had 10 points and 8 rebounds, Taylor Gault had 11 points and Kaitlyn Pratt finished with 8 points and 9 rebounds - but Ford’s performance might have been the most important.
Ford is averaging 15.4 point and shooting 46.5 percent in UALR’s five victories, but she’s averaging 7.2 points on 30.6-percent shooting in the Trojans’ five losses.
It’s a trend not lost on her teammates.
“We kind of feed off of Taylor,” sophomore forward Shanity James said. “If Taylor is having a bad day, everybody is having a bad day. So for her to be doing that, and driving, we’re all like ‘Taylor is driving, so lets go drive.’”
Sunday, Ford hit a jumper to give UALR a 4-0 lead, then drove the lane for a layup and converted a three-point play to give the Trojans an 10-2 lead. That play was followed by a Gault jumper, and a Pratt basket inside that made it 14-2 and forced South Dakota State Coach Aaron Johnson to use a timeout.
South Dakota State’s Gabrielle Boever converted a three-point play, then the Jackrabbits went 8:24 without making their next basket while the Trojans raced to a 29-10 lead. They then went 3:56 before scoring again as UALR went up 37-14 right before half.
Sports, Pages 20 on 12/30/2013