Arrival of Dawn lights up UALR

Joe Foley sent his three assistant coaches out on the road last spring with specific instructions to dig deep into a level not often navigated by the UALR women's basketball team when gathering talent.

"I said, 'Guys we better find a point guard with some experience otherwise we're going to struggle,' " Foley told his coaches.

Second-year assistant Bobby Brasel eventually returned with Alexius Dawn, who has helped spur UALR to the program's best start heading into today's 3 p.m. game against Appalachian State (7-5, 2-1) at the Jack Stephens Center.

Dawn became Foley's first junior-college recruit in five seasons when she signed last May out of South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. And she has started every game for the Trojans (11-2, 4-0), while averaging 10.5 points, shooting 41.3 percent from the floor and operating UALR's motion offense at a smoother rate than anyone has in five seasons.

This is Dawn's first experience at running motion offense.

"She plays at a much quicker pace than what we've had in the past," Foley said. "And she shoots the ball a lot better. So those two things have helped our offense tremendously."

The Trojans' signature is a defense that holds teams to 52.6 points per game (10th best nationally), but this year their 62.8 points per game rank among the best Foley teams and their shooting percentage of 43.2 percent is the highest its been in five seasons.

Foley, in his 12th year at UALR, normally likes to load his recruiting classes with high school players, knowing it takes a year or two for them to learn his motion offense and play his kind of defense.

But he had to make a concession to his usual recruiting strategies to get the kind of improvement he was seeking.

Foley has gone the junior-college route in the past. He speaks fondly of Nikya Hughes, a two-year starter and a first-team All-Sun Belt pick as a senior in 2008, who was a junior-college transfer. Since then Foley has signed one junior college player, while building his best teams with high school talent .

But after UALR lost in the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals last year and failed to reach a postseason tournament for the first time in six seasons, Foley faced a dilemma.

Taylor Ford, who played point guard out of necessity for two seasons, exhausted her eligibility last year leaving no players with whom Foley trusted for the role.

So Brasel went to west Texas, told Dawn of UALR's recent success and convinced her to sign with the Trojans over Texas-Arlington, Georgia State and Southern Miss.

"I wanted to be under someone who knew what he was doing," Dawn said of Foley.

Part of what has made Foley's teams so successful -- his motion offense -- proved a difficult task for Dawn at first.

Foley said Dawn's inexperience with motion wasn't a deterrent during the recruiting process because so few high school and junior college teams run it. Foley said he expects to teach the system to every new player, and she seemed to pick it up quicker than most.

Dawn settled into UALR's starting lineup before the first game, and while she said the first month was tough, she had 12 points in a season-opening game victory at LSU and 16 points in a victory over Missouri State.

Dawn is averaging 15.0 points, 3.8 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 35.5 minutes in four Sun Belt games.

"I wasn't expecting the playing time that I'm getting now," Dawn said.

Foley said Dawn's ability to play point guard -- which allows Taylor Gault and Ka'Nesheia Cobbins to play on the wings -- could be enough to lead UALR back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons.

Is it enough to get Foley to permanently change where he sends his assistants on recruiting trips?

"I think you win with juniors and seniors who have been through the wars," Foley said. "I think we got an exception kid, and I feel blessed with that, but I don't think we'll start filling up our roster with junior college kids."

Sports on 01/10/2015