Trojans zone in
UALR solves defense after difficult start
It took the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s women’s basketball time to settle in, but once the Trojans solved Texas State’s 2-3 zone defense, UALR’s fourth Sun Belt Conference victory was underway.
The Trojans created distance in the second half as four of five starters scored 10 or more points to defeat the Bobcats 62-47 on Thursday at the Jack Stephens Center.
“Sometimes, we were kind of lost,” junior guard Kyra Collier, who led UALR with 16 points on 8-of-17 shooting, said about the zone. “I think we kind of figured it out.”
The Trojans trailed 17-14 at the end of the first quarter. It took time for UALR to muscle its way through to the inside of the zone to expose the cracks in the Bobcats’ defense.
UALR (8-8, 4-1 Sun Belt), which outscored Texas State 13-10 in the second quarter, put together an 8-3 run in the final 4:04 of the second quarter with buckets from senior forward Raeyana DeGray, sophomore guard Terrion Moore, senior forward Ronjanae DeGray and Collier to set a 27-27 tie at halftime.
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In the final 4:47 of the opening half, Texas State (8-9, 3-2) scored just once on eight shot attempts — a three-pointer by senior guard Toshua Leavitt with 47 seconds to go in the half to make it 27-27.
The Trojans had weathered the initial confusion caused by Texas State’s zone, and they were ready to take off in the second half.
“We could have been a little bit better offensively,” UALR Coach Joe Foley said. “But versus zone, we adjusted a little bit better in the second half. I thought our defense was pretty steady. And we didn’t let Leavitt go off on us.”
Leavitt, who was averaging 18.1 points entering Thursday’s game, made 2 of 2 three-point attempts in the opening two quarters. She finished with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting (3 of 5 from three).
“Holding her to five threes is very important,” Foley said. “She makes them hard to guard because you put so much concentration on her.”
UALR trailed for more than 14 minutes Thursday, most of which was in the first half. Two free throws from Ronjanae DeGray gave UALR a 35-30 lead with 7:22 remaining in the third quarter. The Trojans eventually outscored the Bobcats 35-20 in the second half.
Collier, who has finished in double-figure scoring in 11 consecutive games, buried a long jumper from the left side of the floor with 26 seconds to go in the third quarter to give UALR a 47-39 lead.
The Trojans collected 10 of their 13 offensive rebounds in the second half and held Texas State to 9-of-22 shooting in the final two quarters.
“We got them a little tired,” Foley said. “We did a little better job on the offensive boards in the second half against the zone. Anytime you’re playing against a zone, you need to get offensive rebounds.”
UALR’s lead extended to 53-41 on a jumper from Collier with 7:09 remaining in the final quarter.
Tori Lasker, who assumed UALR’s starting point guard role prior to Saturday’s 65-42 victory at South Alabama, connected on back-to-back three-pointers midway through the fourth quarter to balloon UALR’s lead to 59-41.
Lasker finished with 14 points. Ronjanae DeGray posted 13 points and 11 rebounds. Moore added 11 points.
TEXAS-ARLINGTON 100, ARKANSAS STATE 73
Texas-Arlington shot 60 percent from the floor and 50 percent from the threepoint line Thursday to beat Arkansas State University at First National Bank Arena in Jonesboro.
Texas-Arlington (12-4, 4-1 Sun Belt) jumped out to an 8-2 lead after a three-pointer by Lauren Billie. The Red Wolves (8-8, 3-2) cut the lead to 9-8 on a jumper by Akasha Westbrook with 5:35 left in the first quarter, but the Mavericks went on a 9-0 run over the next 3:16 to take an 18-8 lead. The run was broken by a three-pointer by Jada Ford with 2:19 left in the quarter, cutting the lead to 18-11.
The Mavericks outscored the Red Wolves 6-3 to finish the first quarter and lead 24-14. ASU managed to cut the deficit to five points twice in the second quarter, but Texas-Arlington led 46-34 at halftime and was never threatened in the second half.
Cierra Johnson led Texas-Arlington with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and Brooke Alexander hit 4 three-pointers on her way to 20 points. Peyton Martin had 22 points to lead Arkansas State, while Jireh Washington added 14 and Westbrook chipped in with 10.
SUN BELT MEN TEXAS STATE 80, UALR 62
Texas State (15-3, 4-1 Sun Belt) used a 15-0 run over 3½ minutes early in the second half in a victory over the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (7-11, 2-3) at Strahan Arena in San Marcos, Texas.
The Trojans led 33-30 after a layup by Horace Wyatt Jr. 20 seconds into the second half, but the Bobcats tied the game 10 seconds later on a three-pointer by Tre Nottingham. Texas State then went on its run, capped by a Nijal Pearson three-pointer with 16 minutes left, to take a 53-38 lead. UALR cut the lead to eight points twice, but Texas State went on a 10-0 run over a 3:12 span to take a 78-58 lead with 3:46 remaining.
Rayjon Tucker led UALR with 18 points, while Deondre Burns added 14 and Markquis Nowell scored 13. Tre’Larenz Nottingham scored a gamehigh 24 points to lead Texas State, Nijal Pearson poured in 19 and Eric Terry had 11.
TEXAS-ARLINGTON 68, ARKANSAS STATE 59
Ty Cockfield scored 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor, but he was the only Arkansas State University player to score more than 10 points in Thursday’s loss to Texas-Arlington (711, 3-2) at the College Park Center in Arlington, Texas.
The Red Wolves (8-10, 2-3) shot 40 percent (22 of 55) from the floor, but hit just 6 of 22 three-pointers and 9 of 14 free throws. ASU committed 20 fouls and Texas-Arlington converted 23 of 30 free throws (77 percent). The Mavericks also got 13 steals, which they converted into 17 fast-break points to overcome being outrebounded 42-31.
Edric Dennis led Texas-Arlington with 25 points and Radshad Davis added 10.