University of Little Rock women's basketball Coach Joe Foley confirmed over the weekend that Bre'Amber Scott and Brianna Crane had opted out of the remainder of 2020-21 season following the program's covid-19 outbreak earlier this month.
The departure of the duo, and the combined 32.1 points per game it accounted for, left an already hampered team further depleted. As the Trojans prepared to return last week from a 20-day layoff with only 10 available players and without its two leading scorers in Scott and Crane, Foley's message to his team was simple.
"It's not who you start with," the head coach told them. "It's who you finish with."
In their places, Ky'lie Scott and Alayzha Knapp entered UALR's starting five Friday, and have appeared alongside seniors Teal Battle and Krystan Vornes, and point guard Mayra Caicedo in all three games since.
The two new starters are part of a short bench of young players being thrust into new roles over the final 11 games of the Sun Belt Conference season. The shorthanded Trojans (6-6, 2-3) fell victim to their lack of depth, suffering a 54-45 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette on Monday after a weekend split with Texas-Arlington, but scoring performances from Scott and Knapp, as well as bench efforts from sophomore Angelique Francis and freshman Tia Harvey, reinjected promise into a once-disrupted season with UALR seeking to regain its footing.
"We're not a team until January or February," Foley said Saturday. "You don't become a team until then. Then you figure out who is going to give you what. And then you start going to those kids. We learned that lesson a lot this week."
Scott, a sophomore, took advantage of her first career start Friday, scoring 19 points on 8-of-20 shooting with 5 steals, but she also had 7 turnovers. In Saturday's 47-70 victory, Knapp -- returning this season from a stress fracture in her left shin -- scored eight of her 18 points in the fourth quarter to pull the Trojans to their first win since Jan. 1.
Francis, a second-year forward, brought energy from the bench and recorded 7 points and 8 rebounds in 2 games against the Mavericks. On Monday, she cooled off in 25 minutes, finishing with one point and three rebounds.
The three games pushed new faces to the forefront for UALR as untested players saw increased minutes and offered up both bright moments and evident growing pains. More of each will come as the likes of Scott, Knapp and Francis are featured even more while the Trojans look to re-establish themselves in the run-up to March's conference tournament.
"[Our situation] is just putting people in positions that they hadn't been in," Vornes, the senior forward, said. "We're working to get everyone comfortable with the game."
Following Saturday's win, Vornes recalled the commanding voices of former Trojans such as Raeyana DeGray, which she heard as an underclassman and is now trying to replicate with fellow senior Teal Battle to bring their younger teammates into the fold on the court. The introduction of Scott and Knapp, along with nearly three weeks off, has slowed the comprehension and speed of the UALR offense, and has the veterans serving as crucial in-game coaches on the floor.
Sometimes, commanding voices aren't enough. During one offensive sequence Saturday, Vornes pulled Scott and physically moved the sophomore guard to the correct spot for a called play.
"They keep a positive attitude," Knapp said. "They try to talk us through things if we miss it. They just try to keep us calm, cool and collected."
Following the covid-19 layoff, Foley is reshaping his limited rotation and practicing patience while working his young players into new roles. "We're a little bit late on everything right now," he said. "Sometimes they don't understand what I'm trying to tell them.
"We're learning a lot right now. And don't have to be perfect for another five weeks."