The UALR women's basketball team was well on its way to another upset of a major conference team Wednesday night.
The Trojans, who beat Oklahoma, LSU and Texas A&M a year ago, had a cast of largely inexperienced players leading LSU by eight points on Wednesday night as they reached the final five minutes at the Jack Stephens Center.
"Our energy was high, the crowd was into it," said senior forward Shanity James.
Those final five minutes was when LSU cranked up its press, started pestering UALR's guards that were either inexperienced or in foul trouble and turned what looked like a UALR victory the other way, rallying for a 57-51 victory in front of an announced crowd of 2,275.
It left the feeling of a missed opportunity for the Trojans, who had ample opportunity to notch an early season victory over a team that reached last season's NCAA Tournament.
"We did it to ourselves," said guard Sharde' Collins, who scored all 11 of her points in the first half.
UALR Coach Joe Foley pointed to the press LSU used in the final moments, and his young guards not knowing how to handle it, especially after senior Alexius Dawn fouled out with 2:09 remaining.
The Trojans committed 17 turnovers, including seven in a four-minute stretch from when Monique Townson gave them a 46-39 lead with 5:28 left and when Jenna Deemer gave LSU a 54-48 lead with a three-pointer with 1:16 left. LSU's 15-2 run included two 10-second violations caused when the Tigers' press wouldn't let UALR get the ball over the half-court line.
The Tigers (2-1), who reached the NCAA Tournament last year but were picked ninth in the SEC this year, outscored the Trojans (0-2), who lost much of the production from their NCAA Tournament team from a year ago, 23-11 in the fourth quarter and 16-5 over the final five minutes.
"I would say they weren't focused to challenge themselves to beat the press," Foley said. "We're reversing and trying to get through holes. They're just passing back and forth. You've got to challenge. You've got to attack the press. You can't get back on your heels and we got back on your heels."
The Trojans were the aggressors for much of Wednesday. They jumped out to a 10-2 lead after a Collins three-pointer in the corner just over six minutes into the game. After LSU's 12-0 run to close the first quarter, UALR charged back and Collins made consecutive three-pointers that gave them a 22-17 lead.
UALR led 24-20 at halftime.
James, who had a team-high 13 points, scored seven consecutive points midway through the third quarter to boost UALR's lead to 36-30. Keanna Keys' basket inside early in the fourth quarter gave UALR its biggest lead at 44-34 with 6:26 left.
That's when James felt her team feeding off the crowd in their home-opener.
"It was just kind of a high moment for us," James said. "But I think we took it for granted toward the end. We had a lot of high moments, but we didn't execute toward the end like we should have."
UALR had one more chance. Down 54-48, Kaitlyn Pratt's three-point play got UALR to within 54-51 with 1:00 remaining. Deemer, who had a team-high 19 points, had her shot blocked and Pratt grabbed the rebound. Foley called a timeout with 20 seconds left and drew up a play for freshman forward Raeyana DeGray, who missed a three-pointer.
"Wide-open three," Foley said. "Had to be a freshman, but she's run that in practice several times. And we were wide open. And that's all you can ask for."
Townson, a sophomore who played all 40 minutes, scored 12 points, while Pratt had 7, but no other UALR player had more than 4 points in what Foley hopes his team will use as a learning experience.
"There are going to be a lot of those," he said. "It's something you can talk about in practice and you can tell them and watch the film, but sometimes experience is the best teacher. And they're getting some valuable experience right now."
ARKANSAS STATE 76,
TENNESSEE-MARTIN 74
Arkansas State’s defense bent, but it did not break as the women’s basketball team defeated Tennessee-Martin at the Elam Center in Martin, Tenn.
The Red Wolves were called for a charge with seven seconds remaining when Aundrea Gamble drove into lane and ran into a defender, giving the ball to the Skyhawks.
After a time out, Brittney Gill anticipated a crossover move by DaiJa Ruffin and came away with the steal and got a timeout with 0.9 seconds left. The Red Wolves were then able to cleanly inbound the ball and avoid the foul to come away with the victory.
ASU went up by seven points with 3:26 to go when Lauren Bradshaw rebounded and scored off a Jessica Flanery miss, but Tennessee-Martin answered with a three-pointer by Jessy Ward to get the deficit to 69-65.
The Red Wolves went back up by seven when Flanery connected on a three-pointer. Tennessee-Martin got within 76-72 after Ruffin hit a layup with 51 seconds to go and an ASU turnover put the ball back in the Skyhawks’ hands. Ruffin went to the line and hit two free throws before the charge by Gamble and game-winning steal by Gill. Gill finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists. .
Gamble led all scorers with 22 points. Khadija Brown-Haywood finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Sports on 11/19/2015