Trojans' 17-0 Run Leads Team to Victory at ORU

TULSA, Okla. – With its offense sputtering and foul trouble already causing one player to foul out early in the third quarter, things looked bleak for the Little Rock women's basketball team at Oral Roberts on Tuesday night.
 
But an offensive explosion combined with suddenly stifling defense led to a 17-0 run in just under five minutes midway through the quarter, and the Trojans never looked back.
 
Senior forward Shanity James led the way with a career-high 24 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double, and Little Rock (1-2) used that 17-0 run to earn a 66-52 victory over Oral Roberts (2-2) at the Mabee Center. The win was the Trojans' first of the year.
 
Besides James' career night, freshman Kira Shepard set a new career high with 14 points while earning her first college start, and Alexius Dawn broke double digits in scoring with 11. Keanna Keys also picked up a season high with 9 points.
 
Sophomore Monique Townson, Shepard and Dawn had five assists apiece, and Kaitlyn Pratt added seven rebounds to finish second on the team behind James' 10.
 
Just 25 minutes into the night, the outcome looked like it was going to be anything but a dominant Trojan victory.
 
Already leading 28-20 at halftime, ORU extended its lead back up to 11 points at 32-21 to begin the third quarter, and things looked bleak for the Trojans. A Bria Pitts 3-pointer gave the home team a 37-28 lead with 6:21 left in the quarter.
 
Those would be the last points Oral Roberts scored for a long time.
 
Over the next three minutes, Little Rock got 5 points from Keys, a 3-pointer from Townson and 4 points from James. At the media timeout, the Trojans were down just 37-35, and a Keys layup right after the break tied the game at 37-37. A James layup followed, giving Little Rock a 2-point lead, tied for its largest of the game to that point.
 
The lead continued to balloon as Shepard drained a 3-pointer and Dawn followed with one of her own. Those two 3-point baskets capped the 17-0 run and saw the Trojans go from trailing by 9 to leading by 8 in a span of less than five minutes.
 
By the end of the quarter, the Trojans were ahead 51-41. They outscored the Golden Eagles 31-13 in the third quarter, and Little Rock had 11 more points in the third quarter than they did in the entire first half.
 
The fourth quarter saw the Trojans extend their lead throughout as the Golden Eagles continued to fade. James eclipsed the 20-point mark with a layup with six minutes remaining while Dawn and Shepard broke into double-digit scoring for the first time this season.
 
James capped her career night with a 3-pointer with just under a minute remaining to bring her point total to 24. It was her first made 3-pointer of the season and just the fourth of her career.

The win was Little Rock's third straight against Oral Roberts and second straight at the Mabee Center. The victory is also the 701st of Joe Foley's career and the team's fourth consecutive win in the state of Oklahoma.
 
During the game, James earned one block and moved into a tie for sixth place all-time in Trojan history in that statistic with 72.
 
Things started out rough for the Trojans in the first quarter as the Golden Eagles got the first 5 points of the night in just over 90 seconds. But the Trojans regrouped, going on a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to force an Oral Roberts timeout. James had two layups while Shepard added a free throw and a fast-break layup to give Little Rock a 7-5 lead at the first media timeout.
 
The rest of the first quarter was fairly even as well, though play was muddled by plenty of fouling. The Trojans shot just 2 of 8 at the free-throw line in the quarter, and the team went into the second quarter tied at 13-13. 
 
In the early part of the second quarter, the Golden Eagles matched their largest lead of the game when they pulled ahead 20-15 and forced Little Rock coach Joe Foley to take a timeout. ORU got a fast-break layup to take that 5-point lead, and they earned points earlier in the quarter on free throws. Pratt and Sharde' Collins each picked up their third foul at that point of the quarter.
 
Collins earned her fourth foul moments later, and the Trojans would fall behind even further as Oral Roberts went on to take an 11-point lead at 26-15. The Golden Eagles went into halftime ahead 28-20, and Little Rock was only that close thanks to three free throws from Dawn at the end of the half.
 
But the second half was completely owned by Little Rock. When the dust settled, the Trojans outscored the Golden Eagles 46-24 in the final two quarters.
 
The Trojans return home next for a Black Friday special, taking on Memphis this Friday at 5:15 p.m.