UALR women's basketball coach Joe Foley isn't an easy man to please when it comes to defensive effort.
But three games into the Sun Belt Conference season, Foley is as pleased as he can be.
A 71-37 victory Monday night by UALR over South Alabama at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock was the latest evidence.
UALR (10-2 overall, 3-0) forced 26 turnovers, held South Alabama (3-9, 0-3) to 29.3-percent shooting and a season low in points.
"We've done a good job of focusing on what we need to do defensively," Foley said. "Our defense has been really good. We've taken away the strengths of other teams."
UALR has won each of its three of Sun Belt games by at least 20 points, including victories over Louisiana-Lafayette 67-41 on Dec. 30 and at Georgia State 75-55 on Saturday.
Eleven UALR players scored Monday, led by junior guard Alexius Dawn's 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Senior guard Taylor Gault had 15 points while junior forward Shanity James added 11 points and 9 rebounds.
The Trojans held South Alabama's starting guards Brittany Webb, Colby Davis and Breanna Hall to 1 of 11 from the floor. Hall, the Sun Belt's third-leading scorer entering Monday (17.3 points per game), scored 2 points on 1-of-9 shooting.
"That was the key," Foley said. "We knew they were going to set a lot of on-ball screens. They got us last year on those on-ball screens. Tonight, we did a good job of helping each other and not letting them get good looks at the basket. If you take her [Hall] out of the game, that helps a lot. We made sure she [Hall] didn't get a lot of shots."
Gault said the UALR players simply executed the plan devised by Foley.
"We wanted to stop their guards and limit their points," Gault said. "We shut them down pretty well."
UALR limited South Alabama to 23.5 percent shooting (4-17) and forced 18 turnovers en route to building a 43-11 halftime lead. UALR shot 17 of 32 from the floor (53.1 percent) in the first 20 minutes and finished 25 of 47 (43.9 percent) overall.
"We were patient on offense," Foley said. "Most of the time, we got pretty good looks. We were able to break it open. We did what we needed to do"
UALR scored the game's first six points and led 11-2 before a three-pointer by Marquita Daniels (15 points) cut the lead to 11-5 with 14:18 left in the first half. That was South Alabama's last field goal for the next 9:37 as UALR outscored South Alabama 23-0 to increase its lead to 34-5.
Dawn's three-pointer as time expired gave UALR a commanding 43-11 lead at halftime. It is the largest lead UALR has held at halftime this season.
UALR heads back on the road Thursday to face Texas State in San Marcos before returning home Saturday against Appalachian State. James has already set her focus on the Bobcats, who lost to Georgia State on Monday for its first Sun Belt loss of the season.
"We try to take what we learn from each game to the next game, but not take the win on because the win is over once hit the locker room," James said.
ARKANSAS STATE 77, LA.-MONROE 57
Khadija Brown-Haywood had 21 points and six rebounds to lead Arkansas State in a victory over Louisiana-Monroe at the Fant-Ewing Coliseum in Monroe, La. to improve to 3-0 in the Sun Belt Conference.
Aundrea Gamble, who was named the Sun Belt women's player of the week Monday, finished with 16 points, 6 assists and 2 rebounds.
The Red Wolves (8-5) trailed 31-30 at halftime, but outscored the Warhawks (4-7, 0-2) 47-26 in the second half.
Sharnice Brooks and Daja Chase each had 14 points to lead Louisiana-Monroe.
Sports on 01/06/2015