UALR women defeat South Alabama for Joe Foley’s 800th victory.
SUN BELT WOMEN
UALT 69, SOUTH ALABAMA 58
It may have taken longer than he had hoped, but University of Arkansas at Little Rock women’s basketball Coach Joe Foley finally notched victory No. 800.
Tori Lasker and Teal Battle each scored 16 points as the Trojans overcame a fourth-quarter rally to beat South Alabama 69-58 and give Foley his milestone victory Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center in Mobile, Ala.
Foley became just the 13th coach in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to win at least 800 games.
Only seven of those 13 are currently active, with
Foley becoming the latest to join that list. However, the longtime coach was more concerned with the way his team played afterwards than he was about his achievement.
“I’m relieved that we played the game the way it should be played,” Foley said. “I thought we moved the ball extremely on offense and shot it well. That’s what this team needed so I’m relieved of that.
“But I’m also relieved that nobody will ask me about 800 anymore. There were two good things that happened [Saturday], but the most important was that our kids got their confidence.”
The Trojans fell short in their four previous games in trying to help Foley reach his milestone, but UALR put forth an effective outing on both ends of the floor against the Jaguars to put any lingering suspense to rest.
UALR closed out the first half on a 10-2 run to take a 3734 lead into halftime. A jumper by Battle early in the third quarter started a 12-1 rally to help a 38-38 tie into a 50-39 lead. South Alabama (13-14, 8-7) did get within 52-50 with 9:04 left in the fourth quarter on a basket by Jala Buster, but a layup from Kyra Collier ignited a stirring 16-2 spurt to blow the game open.
Collier added 14 points for the Trojans, who hit 29 of 51 (56.9%) field goals.
Kennedi Centers scored 14 points and Shaforia Kines had 12 to pace the Jaguars. Antoinette Lewis added 10.
TROY 79, ARKANSAS STATE 64
A dismal shooting night kept Arkansas State University (9-17, 6-9) from having any chance of upsetting the conference co-leaders at Trojan Arena in Troy, Ala.
The Red Wolves were only 22 of 77 (28.6%), including 7 of 31 from the three-point line. ASU, which led 19-17 after the first quarter before being outscored 45-25 over the next two periods, was also decimated on the glass, 69-37.
Morgan Wallace scored 12 points while Payton Tennison and Jada Ford both had 11 points for the Red Wolves.
Japonica James came off the bench to score 25 points on 12-of-18 shooting for Troy (22-4, 13-2). Alexus Dye added 23 points and 19 rebounds for the Trojans.