LAFAYETTE, La. -- The UALR women's basketball team didn't close in on the top spot in the Sun Belt Conference standings on Saturday -- that's going to be difficult considering Arkansas State's four-game lead on the rest of the league.
But the Trojans did the next best things -- taking over sole possession of second place while continuing to show improvement -- with a 58-49 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette at the Cajundome.
Shanity James scored 22 points and had 12 rebounds and Kaitlyn Pratt added 19 points for UALR (12-11, 10-4), which avenged a 65-58 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette in Little Rock on Jan. 7.
UALR's seventh consecutive victory came five weeks after the Ragin' Cajuns (16-7, 9-5) beat the Trojans with guard Keke Veal scoring 30 points.
Veal was held to 12 points Saturday, and the Ragin Cajuns shot 37.3 percent as a team.
"The team we were when we played them this year is not the team that we are today," James said. "I think they got a totally different team today."
James and Pratt powered the offense, and the Trojans guards did what was needed defensively.
Veal, the Ragin' Cajuns' leading scorer at 15.6 per game, was held to 4 of 10 shooting, and seven of her points came in a five-minute spurt in the second half.
UALR Coach Joe Foley gave credit to sophomore guard Monique Townson, who has progressed into the Trojans' best defender.
"I knew she was going to get shots and I wasn't going to be able to stay in front of her the whole game," Townson said. "But I just wanted to make sure she didn't have a 30-point game on us."
UALR's defense gave its offense time to get untracked.
The Trojans led 9-7 after one quarter and the game was tied 19-19 at halftime after the teams shot a combined 32.6 from the field (14 for 43).
But UALR went inside to James and Pratt in the third quarter, and they combined for 16 points, which was all of UALR's scoring until Townson hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to make it 39-35 heading to the fourth quarter.
James finished 8 of 11 form the floor and 6 of 11 at the line; Pratt was 7 of 13 and 5 of 5 from the line. UALR made 19 of 24 free throws.
UALR's inside scoring made up for what it lacked from its starting guards. Townson, Alexius Dawn and Sharde' Collins were a combined 3 of 17 from the floor.
"They work hard and everybody knows that, and we're trying to win a championship," Foley said. "So you give your heart to people like that."
UALR led 49-47 with 1:57 left when Pratt scored inside and the Trojans outscored the Cajuns 9-2 to close out the game. Dawn made 2 free throws for her only points, Pratt made two, James made 1 free throw and Kira Shepard closed it out with 2 more.
UALR was 12 of 22 from the field in the second half, and held the Ragin' Cajuns to 0 of 5 on three-point attempts. Veal, who made six three-pointers in the first meeting, was 0 for 1 on Saturday as UALR took over second place with six games remaining.
"You're on the road, you're playing against one of the best teams in the conference, and it's time to see if we're good enough to do what we need to do," Foley said. "I think there's a lot of room for improvement, but we did what we needed to do today."
UALR M FG FT O-R pf a Pts
James 39 8-11 6-11 4-12 3 0 22
Pratt 37 7-13 5-5 3-7 3 0 19
Townson 35 2-6 2-2 0-1 4 2 7
Dawn 36 0-1 2-2 0-3 4 3 2
Collins 39 0-9 2-2 0-4 4 3 2
Shepard 8 1-1 2-2 0-1 0 1 4
Keys 6 1-4 0-0 1-2 2 0 2
Team 2-3
Totals 200 19-45 19-24 10-33 20 9 58
PCT. -- FG 42.2, FT 79.2. 3-PT. -- 1-6, 16.7 (Townson 1-2, Dawn 0-1, Collins 0-3). BL -- 4 (Pratt 2). TO -- 17 (James 6). ST -- 5 (James 2).
LA.-LAF. M FG FT O-R pf a Pts
Veal 27 4-10 4-6 1-3 4 5 12
Fields 25 4-10 0-0 3-3 4 0 8
Wilridge 40 5-16 1-1 0-5 2 2 11
Quinn 19 2-3 0-0 0-0 4 0 4
Washington 8 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Arceneaux 24 2-4 4-4 1-2 5 0 8
Cooper 4 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
J.Alexander 8 0-1 0-0 0-2 0 0 0
Prejean 20 2-2 0-0 0-3 4 0 4
G.Alexander 11 0-0 2-2 1-1 1 0 2
Okde 14 0-4 0-0 0-1 1 2 0
Team 4-5
Totals 200 19-51 11-13 10-27 25 9 49
PCT. -- FG 37.3, FT 84.6. 3-PT. -- 0-5, 0.0 (Veal 0-1, Wilridge 0-1, Okde 0-3). BL -- 1 (Arceneaux). TO -- 15 (Veal 3, Fields 3). ST -- 2 (Veal 2).
UALR 9 10 20 19 -- 58
La.-Lafayette 7 12 16 14 -- 49
Officials -- Johnson, Norton, Scroggins
Technicals -- None
Attendance -- NA
Sports on 02/14/2016