University of Arkansas at Little Rock women's Coach Joe Foley did not exactly say this will be a revenge game.
But it could go a long way toward determining the Sun Belt Conference champion.
UALR holds an 8-1 record in the Sun Belt play and sits alone in first place in the conference standings prior to tonight's game against Troy.
"I don't know about revenge," Foley said Wednesday. "It's a game where we've got to see if we've improved. Hopefully we've improved a little bit, but they may have, too."
A 71-66 loss at Troy on Jan. 10 has kept UALR from being the league's only undefeated squad this season.
Nearly a month later, UALR (12-8, 8-1) faces Troy for the final time in the regular season at 6 p.m. at the Jack Stephens Center -- where Troy has never won and is 0-9 all-time.
The matchup in Little Rock will feature the Sun Belt's top scoring offense, Troy, and UALR , which has one of the the league's top-ranked defenses.
Troy is scoring 82.5 points per game and is the conference's only team averaging more than 80 points. UALR is allowing an average of 60.2 points per game, the second fewest in the league and more than 20 points fewer than Troy.
Troy has scored 80 or more points in all but three Sun Belt games this season.
"They've got a lot of weapons, and that's the reason they score a lot," Foley said. "They're a good offensive ball club. Their kids can do a lot of things 1-on-1. They do a good job of spreading you out, and they can attack you with different people.
"There's not any one thing that you can say, 'OK, if we can stop this kid then we've got a good chance of winning.' They've got about three or four kids that can score. ... They're just good players."
UALR's defense has allowed an average of 57.7 points in 20 games this season. How UALR intends to stop the nation's fifth-best scoring offense is a mystery.
"They're so explosive," Foley said. "They done it several times this year where they've scored 25 or more in a quarter. So they're just a very explosive offensive bunch."
Even more, Troy is the top overall rebounding team in the country.
Troy is the nation's only team to average more than 50 rebounds per game at 51.1. Troy is also first in offensive rebounds per game at 22.3.
UALR allowed Troy to snag 24 offensive rebounds in the schools' first meeting. Troy finished with 21 second-chance points.
By basically every quantifiable scoring and rebounding metric, Troy is the Sun Belt's most threatening team, Foley said.
Today’s game
UALR WOMEN VS. TROY
WHEN 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Jack Stephens Center, Little Rock
RECORDS UALR 12-8, 8-1 Sun Belt Conference; Troy 16-4, 7-2
Sun Belt women
CONF. ALL
UALR ........................8-1 12-8
Texas-Arlington ................. 8-2 16-5
Troy ................................... 7-2 16-4
South Alabama ................. 6-3 17-3
Appalachian State ............. 5-4 11-9
Georgia State .................... 5-4 11-9
Texas State ........................ 4-5 9-12
Louisiana-Lafayette ........... 4-6 6-15
Coastal Carolina ................ 3-6 11-9
Arkansas State .............3-6 8-12
Louisiana-Monroe ............ 1-8 7-13
Georgia Southern ............. 1-8 6-14
TODAY’S GAMES
All times Central
Texas State at Appalachian State, 11 a.m.
Texas-Arlington at Coastal Carolina, 5 p.m.
La.-Monroe at Georgia State, 5 p.m.
La.-Lafayette at Georgia Southern, 5:30 p.m.
Troy at UALR, 6:30 p.m.
South Alabama at Arkansas State, 7 p.m.
Sports on 02/07/2019