Taylor Gault again led the UALR women's offense and the Trojans ran away from another Sun Belt Conference opponent Monday night.
Gault scored 23 points and UALR cruised to a 56-34 victory over South Alabama at the Mitchell Center in Mobile, Ala. It was UALR's eighth consecutive victory and it has beaten every Sun Belt opponent by at least 20 points.
UALR, which is ranked No. 41 in the NCAA's latest RPI rankings, is beating Sun Belt teams by an average of 25.8 points per game while holding them to 43.2 points per game. No Sun Belt team has scored more than 55 points against UALR, and 6 of 7 teams have been held to 48 points or less
UALR (14-2, 7-0) got most of its scoring from Gault, who made 9 of 17 shots, and Shanity James, who tied a season-high with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and had 11 rebounds. The Trojans shot 44.2 percent from the field and held the Jaguars (3-14, 0-8), who have lost 12 consecutive games, to 27.5 percent shooting.
Gault is now averaging 18.4 points in Sun Belt games, and James is averaging 12.8 points and 8.3 rebounds.
South Alabama, which UALR beat 71-37 on Jan. 5 in Little Rock, took a 4-0 lead as UALR missed three shots from the floor, two free throws and committed two turnovers in the game's first four minutes. Then a Gault jumper sparked a 15-0 run that gave UALR control. After Amber Yelding hit a jumper, Gault hit jumper that sparked another run. This one included 14 consecutive UALR points over eight minutes as the Trojans led 31-10 at halftime.
South Alabama started the second half on a 11-2 run to make it 33-21, but UALR scored the next seven points to make it 40-21 and was never challenged again.
Sports on 01/20/2015