Two days after having to crawl out of an early hole for a victory, the UALR women's basketball team was wanting far less drama Saturday.
The Trojans acheived that and more against Louisiana-Monroe in a 78-34 victory at the Jack Stephens Center.
The Trojans (8-6, 2-0 Sun Belt) set season bests for points scored, points allowed and turnovers forced in the blowout victory. If it wasn't for playing only reserves in the final six minutes of the game, they might have set a program record for points allowed, too.
Instead, the Trojans settled for their most lopsided victory of the season and starting conference play with consecutive victories.
Most pleasing to Coach Joe Foley might have been that it came two days after a 64-60 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in which UALR trailed 22-7 at the end of the first quarter.
"We've been talking about it all day yesterday and today," Coach Joe Foley said. "'Let's quit getting behind, let's quit waiting to see what's going to happen, let's take control right off the bat and play the way you're supposed to play."
Even if it came against the struggling Warhawks (3-10, 0-2), it was still pleasing for Foley and his players. UALR started the game with 18 defensive stops in a row, led 16-0 at the end of the first quarter, 30-3 five minutes into the second quarter and 41-9 at halftime, tying the school record for lowest points allowed in one half.
The Trojans pushed their lead to as much as 68-20 with 7:01 left and looked like they would challenge the school record for fewest points allowed in a game, when they held Arkansas Baptist to 28 points in a 1986 victory. But Foley pulled his remaining starters up 68-23 with 6:34 left, after which Louisiana-Monroe scored its final nine points.
The Warhawks, who missed their first eight shots, finished 12 of 44 from the floor (27.3 percent), a season-low for a UALR opponent. It came two days after giving up 60 points to the Ragin' Cajuns in an at-times sloppy effort.
"We always have a lot more work to do [defensively]," freshman Kyra Collier said. "But, today we did a lot better with rotating and talking more. Helping each other out. Before this we were kind of struggling. I can say I was struggling."
Sharde Collins had 17 points, Collier had 13 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists, and Kaitlyn Pratt had 12 points.
The Trojans shot a season-high 54.1 percent as a team. The reason for their success was simple, Pratt said.
"It was just based on running," Pratt said. "Coach Foley demands us to run. He don't play no games. He wants us to run, run, run, run, run, which we should and that's what we did."
UALR used a similar strategy to rally against Louisiana-Lafayette on Thursday night, but the Trojans did so from the start Saturday. Collins, Pratt, Collier, Monique Townson, Carolee Dillard and Ronjanae DeGray each scored for UALR in the first quarter, the last eight points coming on fastbreaks or drives to the basket.
Townson and DeGray helped expand the lead in the second quarter, and DeGray's three-point play closed the first half with a 41-9 lead. Any question regarding the outcome was gone.
"When you get there, you've got to really emphasize on each possession playing the best that you can play," Foley said. "Don't worry about the score, just play the possession the best you can play, offensively and defensively. I thought we did a good job of that."
SUN BELT WOMEN
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 80,
ARKANSAS STATE 72
JONESBORO — Arkansas State took an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter but struggled to get stops in its first Sun Belt loss of the season Saturday at the Convocation Center.
ASU (3-11, 1-1) led 53-45 after three quarters when Louisiana-Lafayette (7-4, 1-1), the highest scoring team in the Sun Belt, scored 35 points in the final quarter while making 12 of 19 shots.
ASU led 62-53 after two free throws by Dominique Oliver with 6:43 left, but a jumper by Simone Fields off a steal started the Cajuns’ rally. They scored on their final 13 possessions. After Fields’ jumper, she followed with another jumper, while Troi Swain, Jasmine Thomas and Jaylyn Gordon also scored in the 12-1 run that gave the Cajuns a 65-63 lead with 3:58 left.
Later, a Tahlon Hopkins jumper cut ASU’s deficit to 72-70, but the Ragin’ Cajuns scored the next eight points to close it out. They outscored the Red Wolves 27-10 over the final 6:27.
Hopkins led ASU with 18 points, while Jada Ford had 12, and Oliver and Fowler each had 10.
Gordon and Thomas each had 21 points to lead Louisiana-Lafayette.
Sports on 01/01/2017