SUN BELT WOMEN

ASU finds its mark in second-half rally

Arkansas State's women's team erased a 10-point second-half deficit and shot a season-high 59.6 percent from the field as it defeated Missouri State 78-62 on Friday night at the JQH Arena in Springfield, Mo.

Junior guard Aundrea Gamble scored 22 points, 17 in the second half, to lead the Red Wolves (5-4). Hanna Qedan added 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3 three-pointers. Khadija Brown-Haywood, Jasmine Hunt and Brittney Gill all finished with 12 points each.

ASU trailed 51-41 with just more than 18 minutes remaining but went on a 13-0 run to take a 44-41 lead with 12:29 left. Gamble sparked the run with a pull-up jumper in the lane, and Qedan gave the Red Wolves a one-point lead with a three-pointer. The Lady Bears turned over the ball, and Hunt scored on a layup on the other end to put ASU up by three points.

ASU was active defensively but made its greatest impact during its drive to regain the lead. Missouri State committed six turnovers during a five-minute span and went 0 for 5 from the field to allow ASU to get back into the game.

"I am really proud of this team and the way they were able to come back tonight," ASU Coach Brian Boyer said. "The biggest thing was that there were some very specific mistakes we were making that was allowing them to score, and we were finally able to get some stops and regain the lead."

The Lady Bears briefly regained the lead at 45-44 with 11:34 left and again at 47-45 less than a minute later. But the Red Wolves responded with a 9-0 run to push their lead to 54-47 on a three-pointer by Qedan with 9:01 to go. The lead grew to 65-54 with over four minutes to go, and ASU sealed the game by going 8 for 8 from the free-throw line over the final two minutes.

"We have to make free throws to win ball games," Boyer said.

Arkansas State led 24-14 with 8:37 to go in the first half but went cold from the field after that point as the Bears finished on a 23-7 run. Kenzie Williams scored 12 points in the half on 3-of-6 shooting and hit all 5 of her free throws.

The Lady Bears used a 9-0 run to get within 24-23 and ended the half on a 7-0 run to take a 37-31 lead into the break. ASU looked out of sync for much of the final 10 minutes of the half and committed six of its nine turnovers in the half during the span.

SOUTHLAND WOMEN

CENTRAL ARKANSAS 71, BLUE MOUNTAIN 30

Kendara Watts had 20 points, Kelsey McClure had 16 rebounds and the University of Central Arkansas cruised to a nonconference victory over NAIA member Blue Mountain College on Friday afternoon at the Farris Center in Conway.

Watts made 8 of 10 shots and the Sugar Bears made 55.6 percent of their shots. Maggie Proffitt added 17 points, making 3 of 5 three-pointers. UCA made 6 of 13 three-pointers.

Blue Mountain was held to 18.9 percent shooting, including 2 of 16 from behind the three-point line. Kati Price finished with 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting, but the rest of the team was just 5 of 38.

SWAC WOMEN

ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM 65, ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 56

Three days after shooting 12 percent from the field in a loss to Alabama, Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s women shot 48.1 percent Friday in a loss to Alabama-Birmingham at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala.

The Golden Lions (2-8) made 26 of 54 field-goal attempts, including 15 of 25 (60.0 percent) in the second half. But it wasn’t enough to defeat Alabama-Birmingham (5-4), which was led by senior Janae Smith’s 25 points.

The Blazers shot 40.3 percent (25 of 62) from the field and outrebounded UAPB 44-25.

UAPB scored the first basket of the game, but it wasn’t long before the Blazers took control to jump out to a 9-2 lead with seven consecutive points by Smith.

The Blazers extended their lead to 27-13 on a three-pointer by Black at the 6:14 mark. UAPB pulled to within nine with less than a minute left in the first half. But Black made a three-pointer and then passed to junior Dy’man Webb for a layup at the buzzer to give Alabama-Birmingham a 38-25 at halftime.

Ajia Richardson led UAPB with 12 points. Diamond Richardson and Charisse Carr added 10 each

Sports on 12/20/2014

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