UALR led for exactly 30 minutes of its Sun Belt Conference women's game Saturday afternoon in Troy, Ala.
It was the final minute that did in the Trojans as they lost 65-62 to Troy at Trojan Arena for just their second league loss. UALR (22-5, 15-2 Sun Belt) led 35-25 at halftime, but Troy (17-9, 12-5) fought back and eventually outscored the Trojans 6-2 in the game's final minute, including 4 of 4 free throws, to avenge an 82-56 blowout loss Jan. 22 in Little Rock.
Taylor Gault, who led UALR with 20 points, made two free throws to give the Trojans their final lead, 60-59, with 1:17 remaining. Troy's Ronita Garrett came right back to give her team the lead for good on a layup with 1:01 left before UALR's Shanity James turned over the ball and then fouled Ashley Beverly-Kelley, whose two free throws made it 63-60.
Gault's layup cut the lead to 63-62 with 22 seconds left, but Lacey Buchanon made two free throws 11 seconds later for the final margin. Gault's tying three-point attempt missed as the Trojans had their six-game winning streak snapped. UALR's only other league loss came Jan. 29 at Arkansas State.
Troy, the leading scoring team in the Sun Belt at 77.1 points a game, jumped out to a 7-0 lead to begin the game. UALR responded with an 18-0 run sparked by five points apiece from Gault and Kaitlyn Pratt as the Trojans led 18-7 with 12:38 left in the first half.
UALR pushed its lead to 35-22 when James converted a layup with 1:06 left before halftime. Rachel Reid made 1 of 2 free throws and Beverly-Kelley hit a layup to get Troy to get within 35-25 at intermission.
UALR maintained its 10-point lead when Ka'Nesheia Dobbins turned a steal into a layup for a 39-29 advantage with 17:03 left.
Troy then went on a 12-1 run over the next 4:30 to take a 41-40 lead when Beverly-Kelley made a jumper, two of her game-high 23 points.
UALR fought back to score the next seven points on an Alexius Dawn three-pointer, a Gault jumper and Pratt's layup to lead 47-41. Troy tied the score before UALR got baskets from Gault and Cobbins to lead 51-47 with 6:57 remaining. It was the Trojans' biggest lead the remainder of the way, and the game was tied four times over the final seven minutes.
After Gault's 20 points, UALR was led by Kiera Clark's 11 and James and Pratt, who each scored 10. James had a team-high 10 rebounds, while Gault had a game-high six assists.
Troy forced 22 UALR turnovers, including seven from James.
Troy got 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds from Garrett and 11 points from Buchanon off the bench.
UALR completes its home schedule at 5:30 p.m. Thursday against Georgia State before going on the road to face Texas-Arlington and Louisiana-Lafayette.
ARKANSAS STATE 69,
LOUISIANA-MONROE 61
Arkansas State maintained a small chance to grab at least a share of the Sun Belt Conference championship after a victory over Louisiana-Monroe at the Convocation Center in Jonesboro.
Aundrea Gamble had a game-high 23 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists to lead the Red Wolves (18-8, 13-3), who cut UALR’s conference lead to 1½ games following the Trojans’ 65-62 loss at Troy on Saturday. ASU, which has four regular-season games remaining, lost 63-61 to UALR on Thursday.
Gamble, who scored at least 20 points for the 15th time this season, was 6 of 15 from the field, including 3 of 7 from threepoint range. Khadija Brown-Haywood finished with 15 points, while teammate Jasmine Hunt, who had 11 in the first half, added 13 points.
ASU grabbed a 33-29 lead going into halftime behind Hunt’s 11 points. ULM tied the score at 41 five minutes into the second half, but the Red Wolves responded with a 10-0 run, fueled by six points from Brown-Haywood, to take their largest lead of the game at 51-41 with 12:32 remaining.
Alayshia Hunter scored 22 points off the bench and Sharnice Brooks added 18 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to lead the Warhawks, who outscored ASU 44-28 in points in the lane and 16-7 on second-chance points.
SOUTHLAND
CENTRAL ARKANSAS 66,
SAM HOUSTON STATE 63
Central Arkansas, which lost a late lead Wednesday night against McNeese State, nearly blew an 18-point lead Saturday at the Farris Center in Conway but hung on as the Bearkats couldn’t convert a game-tying three-pointer in the closing seconds.
UCA (15-11, 8-6 Southland) has lost five times by three points or less this season but did enough to avert the same fate against Sam Houston (6-18, 5-9).
UCA shot 59.3 percent in the first half on its way to a 41-23 lead. That’s when Sam Houston’s Shernise Robertson took over. Robertson, the league’s leading scorer at 19 points a game, had six first-half points but outscored the Sugar Bears 26-25 in the second half as she made 7 of 10 field goals, including 4 of 6 three-pointers, and 8 of 9 from the freethrow line. But her final shot to tie the score with nine seconds left missed, as did teammate Taylor Dorsey’s attempt just before the buzzer.
Maggie Proffitt had 14 of her teamhigh 18 points in the second half to lead the Sugar Bears, who shot 23 percent ( 3 of 13) in the final 20 minutes. Brianna Mullins had 14 points and Kendara Watts added 12 for UCA, which got a game-high six assists from Jameka Watkins.
Robertson’s 32 points led all scorers. It was the most by an opposing player this season against the Sugar Bears. Dorsey added 16 points and five assists for the Bearkats.
The victory moved the Sugar Bears into a tie for sixth place with Northwestern (La.) State and three games ahead of Sam Houston for the seventh seed going into next month’s conference tournament.
SWAC
TEXAS SOUTHERN 73,
ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 58
Brianna Sidney’s three-pointer 14 seconds into the game got Texas Southern off and running at H&PE Arena in Houston and the Lady Tigers never trailed against the Lady Lions.
Texas Southern (15-9, 12-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference) led by as many as 29 points, 47-18, with 18:53 left in the game. The Lady Lions (6-19, 4-10) got as close as 70-56 on Ajia Richardson’s layup with 1:18 remaining.
UAPB managed to outscore Texas Southern 40-30 in the second half but couldn’t recover from a 43-18 halftime deficit. The Lady Tigers had first-half advantages of 20-8 in points in the lane and 24-2 in points off turnovers.
Texas Southern’s Alexus Johnson led all scorers with 27 points and added a teamhigh 9 rebounds in 33 minutes. Sidney added 16 for the Lady Tigers.
Shami Goodman led UAPB with 11 points, including 3 of 3 three-pointers. Richardson added 10 points for the Lady Lions.
Sports on 02/22/2015