It had been 1,469 days -- a little more than four years -- since the University of Arkansas at Little Rock women's basketball team lost a Sun Belt Conference game at home.
In their entire UALR careers, guards Kyra Collier and Sydney Chastain -- the Trojans' only seniors -- had never experienced defeat in a conference game at the Jack Stephens Center. The streak had lengthened to 38 consecutive games with victories over Georgia Southern and Georgia State last week.
But on Wednesday night, it all came to an end.
Coastal Carolina delivered a 68-48 drubbing of UALR in front of an announced crowd of 593. After leading 30-26 at halftime, the Chanticleers outscored the Trojans 38-22 over the final two periods, including a decisive 22-9 advantage in the third quarter.
"That was a game, I think, of just will," Foley said. "I think they came in here with a little bit more toughness, little bit more maturity."
Jan. 7, 2016, marked the date of UALR's previous home conference loss -- a 65-58 defeat to Louisiana-Lafayette.
Multiple UALR players, including Collier, recently had addressed the importance of maintaining the streak, but that was no longer the case by the end of Wednesday night.
"Right now, we're really not worried about it. We're trying to focus on the next game, getting better," Collier said. "We just got to grow up."
After the final buzzer, Coastal Carolina Coach Jaida Williams gathered her team at midcourt to revel in the victory. Moments later, a staff member pulled her phone out and snapped a photo of the scoreboard behind the basket.
It also was Coastal Carolina's first victory over UALR after losing the first five meetings, and it was Williams' 100th victory of her Chanticleers' tenure.
Both teams had entered in a six-way tie for first in the Sun Belt standings, but with Wednesday's result, Coastal Carolina (14-2, 4-1) grabbed the solo lead and UALR (5-11, 3-2) dropped to sixth.
Junior forward Teal Battle led UALR with 17 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, and Collier and junior guard Tori Lasker each posted 11 points and 4 assists, but the Trojans' offense struggled to 38% shooting.
UALR also was worked over inside, where Coastal Carolina won the battle on the glass, 37-24, and tallied 36 points in the paint -- 14 more than the Trojans. The return of UALR freshman forward Nicole Hemphill from an ankle injury after missing six games didn't help much, either.
"[Their] bigs pretty much outworked us," Collier said. "They were a lot more intense. We didn't fight back at all. We just kind of laid back some."
UALR shot 50% from the field in the first half, compared to just 30% in the second.
UALR trailed by one after the opening quarter, and after not scoring for more than five minutes to start the second quarter, Collier's jumper with a second left pulled UALR to within 30-26 at halftime.
The Chanticleers opened the second half on an 11-2 run, extending their lead to 41-28. After Collier's jumper cut it to 11, Coastal Carolina surged again, going on another 11-2 run over the next 41/2 minutes to take a 52-32 lead with 2:04 left in the quarter.
That gave way to an anticlimactic fourth quarter, and UALR never trailed by less than 14. Coastal Carolina shot 65% in the second half.
"Third quarter seems to be our nemesis right now," Foley said. "We haven't played a good third quarter since we've been here [this homestand]."
Torrie Cash led the Chanticleers with 16 points. DJ Williams had 11 points and 11 assists.
CCU M FG FT O-R PF A PTS
Camp 29 2-2 0-0 0-5 3 0 4
Hamilton 27 4-11 1-1 2-12 4 1 9
Cash 39 5-8 2-4 0-1 0 1 16
Roche 33 5-11 0-0 1-1 3 0 12
Williams 27 5-8 1-1 0-5 4 11 11
Blount 21 5-8 4-4 1-6 1 1 14
Esmon 11 0-4 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
West 5 0-0 0-0 1-1 2 0 0
Davis 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 3 0 0
Denson 1 1-1 0-0 0-2 0 0 2
Lewis 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Team 3-3
Totals 200 27-54 8-10 8-37 20 14 68
PCT. -- FG 50.0, FT 80.0. 3-PT. -- 6-16, 37.5 (Cash 4-5, Roche 2-7, Davis 0-1, Esmon 0-3). BL -- 1 (Blount). TO -- 15 (Cash 3, Williams 3, Esmon 3). ST -- 7 (Cash 3).
UALR M FG FT O-R PF A PTS
Vornes 36 2-4 1-2 3-8 2 0 5
Knapp 19 0-6 0-2 0-1 2 0 0
Battle 34 6-12 5-7 1-7 4 0 17
Lasker 36 4-8 1-2 0-1 1 4 11
Collier 34 5-13 1-1 0-1 1 4 11
Hemphill 10 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 2
Chastain 14 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 1 0
Francis 6 0-0 1-2 0-1 0 0 1
Knight 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Scott 4 0-2 1-2 0-1 0 0 1
Anderson 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Team 0-3
Totals 200 18-47 10-18 4-24 12 9 48
PCT. -- FG 38.3, FT 55.6. 3-PT. -- 2-8, 25.0 (Lasker 2-4, Scott 0-1, Collier 0-3). BL -- 0. TO -- 14 (Vornes 3, Lasker 3, Collier 3). ST -- 6 (Vornes 2, Collier 2).
Coastal Carolina 15 15 22 16 -- 68
UALR 14 12 9 13 -- 48
Officials -- Small, Lukanich, Kimura
Attendance -- 593
Sports on 01/16/2020