Box Score LITTLE ROCK – The UALR women's basketball team held its opponent to under 50 points for the third consecutive game and set a new school record in the process on at the Jack Stephens Center on Wednesday night.
With a 54-43 victory against Oral Roberts, the Trojans have now started a season with four straight wins for the first time in program history. All four of the team's wins this season have also come back double figures.
The contest was very tight for the first 27 minutes, but with UALR leading 29-28 early in the second half, the Trojans took over. The team went on a 17-4 run over a six-minute stretch, turning a close contest into a 14-point lead.
Shanity James led UALR with a season-high 14 points – including the team's first 9 of the evening – and also had five rebounds. Kiera Clark had season highs in points with 12 and rebounds with 10, picking up the Trojans' first double-double of the season. The team also got 10 points from Kaitlynn Pratt and six each from Lexus Williams and Taylor Gault, who was playing in her 100th career game.
But as has been the case for all four games this year, the defense was the star of the night for UALR. Oral Roberts center Vicky McIntyre entered the night averaging 12.8 points, 14.3 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game. But the Trojans held McIntyre to just 6 points, eight rebounds and two blocks as they changed defensive looks on her all night and forced her to run. The Trojans actually outrebounded the Golden Eagles 40-34.
Oral Roberts was pressured all evening and committed 24 turnovers that led to 21 UALR points. The Trojans also got a season-best 14 steals. The Golden Eagles were only able to shoot 35.9 percent from the floor and even committed a technical foul out of frustration late in the game.
UALR began the first half strong defensively and was able to build a lead as high as nine points during the half. But the Golden Eagles cut that down to 3 by halftime and kept the contest very close for the first seven minutes of the second period.
But leading by a 29-28 scoreline with 13:18 to play, UALR's offense finally started clicking and Oral Roberts was unable to keep up. The scoring run began with a Pratt layup and was followed by layups from Pratt and Clark to make the score 36-28 two minutes later.
Gault, Clark and Williams all made baskets in the next three minutes, and another jumper from Clark capped the scoring run that gave the Trojans a 46-32 lead with 7:21 left. Oral Roberts had four missed field goals and three turnovers during that period.
UALR would eventually extend the lead to 18 points at 52-34 on a 3-pointer from Clark with five minutes to play, and all that was left was to drain the final 300 seconds off the clock.
UALR has now won three consecutive games against Oral Roberts and holds a 3-2 lifetime edge over the Golden Eagles. The Trojans have also won 12 consecutive games at the Jack Stephens Center. James picked up her 400th career rebound during the game as well.
Ka'Nesheia Cobbins factored into the result heavily, picking up six rebounds and three steals. Alexius Dawn and Gault tied for the team lead with four steals, and Dawn was the leading assister with four. James had UALR's lone block of the evening.
The first five minutes went mostly UALR's way, as the Trojans led 9-4 on all nine points from James. The junior had three free throws in that span to go along with three layups, and Oral Roberts had to call a timeout to regroup.
The Trojans never fell behind in the first half, maintaining leads of at least three points for the rest of the half. UALR was ahead by 9 points with 10 minutes to play in the half, and the Trojans also had a 19-10 lead with 3:34 left in the period.
Though the Golden Eagles managed just 10 points in the game's first 16 minutes, they scored 7 in the final four to make it a 22-17 advantage for UALR at the break. James led all scorers with 10 points at the half.
After a two-day break for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Trojans return to the court on Saturday. UALR is set to take on Memphis on the road at 11 a.m.
