The University of Arkansas at Little Rock women's basketball team and Texas State will meet for the first time today since the Trojans' 54-53 Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game victory on March 11.
Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at the Jack Stephens Center.
For UALR, there will not be much extra zest when the Bobcats visit because of last year's successful title-clincher. For Texas State, that may be a different story.
"Naturally, we won it, so we got the spoils," Foley said. "But that always leaves a bad taste in your mouth, so I'm sure there will be a little extra there for them."
The Bobcats (8-8, 3-1 Sun Belt) had their season-long four-game winning streak snapped in a 62-49 loss Saturday against Appalachian State.
UALR (7-8, 3-1) acquired its first Sun Belt loss in a 71-66 defeat at Troy on Jan. 10. The Trojans responded with a 65-42 victory Saturday at South Alabama.
UALR ranks No. 2 in the Sun Belt in scoring defense at 58.6 points allowed per game.
"We've been pretty hard-nosed on defense," Foley said. "We've done a pretty good job at scouting what the other teams' strengths are [and] taking them away."
Foley said he expects Texas State to unleash some zone defense against the Trojans, which is something UALR's hasn't seen much since conference play began in early January.
"It'll be interesting to see how we handle that," the coach said.
Arkansas State University, UALR, Texas State and Texas-Arlington are all tied for second in the Sun Belt at 3-1, a game behind Troy.
Texas-Arlington will travel to Jonesboro tonight to face ASU at First National Bank Arena.
Texas-Arlington redshirt senior guard Cierra Johnson set the school's all-time career record for steals (286) after acquiring 13 in two victories last week. Johnson was named the Sun Belt women's player of the week on Monday.
UALR men
Darrell Walker is watching the defense.
UALR completed a two-game winning streak with home victories last week against Troy and South Alabama. Neither visiting team scored more than 62 points.
UALR forced Troy (23) and South Alabama (19) into 42 turnovers, the Trojans' most in a two-game stretch all season.
Neither Troy nor South Alabama shot better than 40 percent from the floor, and both teams missed double-digit attempts from beyond the three-point line.
UALR (7-10, 2-2 Sun Belt) will meet Texas State (14-3, 3-1) at 7 p.m. today at Strahan Coliseum in San Marcos, Texas. The Trojans will then travel to Texas-Arlington on Saturday for a 2 p.m. matchup.
"At the end of the day, I've got to get ready for this Texas trip and I'm concerned," Walker said. "We've got to take this defensive effort and take it on the road."
Sports on 01/17/2019