UALR women win
The UALR women’s basketball team was able to withstand a late Sam Houston State rally Sunday and survived a 69-65 season-opening victory in Little Rock in a meeting of two teams that played in the WNIT last season. Kiera Clark had 19 points for the Trojans.
Just about everything Coach Joe Foley thought could go wrong did at some point Sunday afternoon at the Jack Stephens Center.
Foley’s UALR women’s basketball team struggled, at times, to defend in the post, got into foul trouble, and let up a bit after building a 12-point lead early in the second half.
The Trojans also committed 18 turnovers.
But the Trojans withstood a Sam Houston State rally and took a 69-65 season-opening victory, one that Foley said looked a lot like the team’s closed scrimmages played in preparation for the opener.
“That’s the way we’ve been playing,” Foley said. “We get a little bit of a lead, and we act like the game is over and we make mental mistakes. … We look like a very immature team right now.”
The Trojans outscored the Bearkats 10-2 to start the second half to take a 48-36 lead, and then used consecutive three-pointers from Taylor Ford and Kiera Clark to go up 67-55 with 4:02 left.
But the Bearkats, who lost three starters off last year’s Southland Conference title team, got two free throws from Jazmin Wiley, a threepoint play from Jasmine Johnson and two more free throws from Nyha Carter to get within 67-62 with 2:18 left.
Angela Beard’s layup after a Taylor Gault turnover got Sam Houston State to within 67-64 with 1:54 left. UALR blew two chances to extend the lead when Gault missed a layup and Clark dribbled a ball off her foot when she was going to drive the lane.
“I wanted to cross over, but I should have used the screen,” said Clark, who had a team-high 19 points and six assists. “My coach got on me about that.”
Clark made two free throws to make it 69-64 after Taylor Dorsey clanged a three-pointer off the rim to finally let Foley and the Trojans exhale.
James added 12 points and Gault had 11 as UALR won a season-opener at home for the seventh time in eight tries under Foley.
Beadle scored 14 of her 18 points in the first half for Sam Houston State, and she made 8 of 9 free throws. Sam Houston State made 25 of 36 free throws and five UALR players finished with four fouls, including post players Shanity James, Keanna Keys and Kaitlyn Pratt.
Foul trouble was expected by Foley considering James’ track record of foul trouble and the inexperience of Keys and Pratt, both of whom are freshmen. So was Sam Houston State’s rally.
“A good team would have just kept putting your foot on the throat and kept going,” Foley said.
“We just kind of went back and lollygagged around and let them get in the post too easy and fouled. … That’s going to contribute to anybody coming back.”