Little Rock Readies for Sunday Showdown With Tulsa

GM 7 >> Little Rock (2-4) vs. Tulsa (2-7)
Sunday, December 13 • 2 p.m. (CST)
Little Rock, Ark. • Jack Stephens Center
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes
Radio: Trey Schaap (PxP) and Ron Jumper (Color) on 920 AM
 
LITTLE ROCK – Following an incredibly challenging week that saw the Trojans take on two top-25 teams, Little Rock got a week off to prepare for Tulsa coming to the Jack Stephens Center on Sunday. The nearby rivals are set to tip off at 2 p.m.
 
CAMP REUNION DAY AND CHURCH DAY
All campers who attended the Joe Foley Basketball Camp this summer will get in to Sunday's game for free if they are wearing their camp T-Shirt. Fans who show up to Sunday's game with their church bulletins or programs from morning services will also get 200 Level seats for just $10.
 
TIP OFF

• Little Rock had a very strong game against No. 6 Texas on Sunday, leading the Longhorns by 13 points heading into the fourth quarter before eventually losing.
• The Trojans outscored Texas 11-0 in the third quarter, holding the Longhorns without a basket for nearly 11 minutes of game time.
• Sharde' Collins set a new career high with 21 points against the Longhorns just three days after setting a career high of 13 points at No. 21 Oklahoma.
• Shanity James has reached double-figure scoring in every game this year and is currently fourth in the Sun Belt Conference with 17.7 points per game. She played all 40 minutes Sunday and scored 12.
• Alexius Dawn also recorded her third game with double-digit scoring and missed just one of her seven attempts from inside the arc against Texas.
• Little Rock owns a 9-1 series lead over Tulsa and has won six straight in the series.

 
ABOUT THE TROJANS
The Trojans have played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country, taking on two top-25 teams and one more on the way. Little Rock has also taken on Southeastern Conference foe LSU and a Tulane team that made the NCAA Tournament last year. Those games have resulted in a 2-4 record, but Little Rock has held a lead in the third or fourth quarter in all but one of those losses. Against No. 6 Texas on Sunday, the Trojans held a 13-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter before falling flat. Sharde' Collins scored a career-best 21 points in that game.
 
The Trojans are riding a huge wave of success over the last decade, making the national postseason for seven of the last eight seasons including four NCAA Tournament berths and three WNIT trips. Little Rock was picked third in the Sun Belt's preseason coaches poll and received two first-place votes.
 
ABOUT TULSA

• The Golden Hurricane, based in Tulsa, Okla., have a 2-7 record this season and have lost their last two games. Their two victories this year came at Arkansas and against Grambling State last Wednesday.
• Most recently, Tulsa suffered losses to Indiana State and to Oklahoma at home. Tulsa lost to Oklahoma by the same 13 points that Little Rock did last week.
• Little Rock and Tulsa have one other common opponent so far this year: Oral Roberts. While the Trojans defeated Oral Roberts by 12, Tulsa lost to the Golden Eagles by 6.
• Tulsa's offense this season has been led by Kelsee Grovey and her 12.1 points per game. But the Golden Hurricane have two other players scoring in double figures this year: Ashley Clark and her 11.9 points per game and Teanna Reid and her 11.0 points per game. Erika Wakefield isn't far behind, putting up 9.4 points per game.
• Clark is Tulsa's best rebounder with 6.9 boards per night, and Wakefield dishes out the most assists with 28 through nine games. Tulsa is being outblocked this year as a team 43-11.
• Matilda Mossman is in her fifth year as Tulsa's head coach. She has a 209-162 overall record.

 
THE SERIES AGAINST TULSA
In a series dating back to New Year's Day in 1987, Little Rock holds a 9-1 record all-time against Tulsa. The Hurricane's only win in the series came in 2001. Joe Foley has a 6-0 record all-time against Tulsa, and those six wins make up Little Rock's current six-game winning streak over the Hurricane. When the teams played last year, the Trojans earned a 66-59 victory at the Reynolds Center thanks to 16 points each from Kiera Clark and Taylor Gault.
 
A WIN AGAINST TULSA WOULD…
…be the team's seventh straight victory over the Hurricane…be the team's 10th win ever against Tulsa…be Joe Foley's 703rd career win.
 
LITTLE ROCK VS. THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
The Trojans have played 28 games against current AAC teams, but most of those contests have come against Tulsa and Memphis, two teams that just joined the AAC last year. Besides Little Rock's 10-1 record against Tulsa and a 3-7 mark against Memphis, the Trojans are 1-1 against South Florida, 1-1 against SMU and 0-3 against Tulane.
 
SHUTOUT QUARTER
The Trojans may have had the best defensive quarter of any team in the nation on Sunday, shutting out No. 6 Texas completely in the third quarter. Little Rock posted an 11-0 edge in points during the third quarter as the Longhorns turned the ball over seven times and missed 10 field goal attempts. Little Rock even got a blocked shot by Shanity James during that stretch. The 11-0 third quarter helped the Trojans expand their 2-point halftime edge to 13 points at 48-35 entering the final quarter.
 
COLLINS' NEW HIGH
Sharde' Collins had the best scoring game of her career for the second consecutive game when she put up 21 points against Texas on Sunday. One game earlier, Collins broke her career high of 12 points when she scored 13 at Oklahoma. She better that mark by 8 against the Longhorns. Collins went 9 of 13 from the field, shooting an impressive 69 percent against a top-10 Texas squad. Collins only had two free-throw attempts to bolster that total while playing a season-high 37 minutes.
 
DOUBLE FIGURE STREAK
Shanity James is on a scoring roll this season, and her 12 points scored against the Longhorns on Sunday marked the sixth consecutive game this year where she has reached at least 10 points. James tallied 14 in the season opener against Tulane, 13 against LSU, 24 at Oral Roberts, 22 against Memphis, 21 against Oklahoma and 12 when the Trojans played Texas. James has not failed to score in double figures this year. James leads the conference with 36.5 minutes played per game and is fourth in the conference with 17.7 points per game scored through Thursday night.
 
1000TH POINT
All that scoring James has been doing allowed her to reach a career milestone on Sunday. When she scored her sixth point of the day, that translated to the 1,000th point of her career. James is just the 10th Trojan to ever reach 1,000 career points as she sits 10th on the team's all-time scoring list now with 1,006. She will move up to ninth with 50 more points and could realistically go as high as sixth on the all-time list by the end of this season with 1,245 points. James accomplished this feat in her 101st career game.
 
HOT SHOOTER
Even more remarkable than James' point totals is her accuracy in accruing those points. James shot 60 percent last week against Oklahoma and Texas, combining for 15 made baskets on 25 shots. If you discount 3-pointer she took when she was forced to put them up at the end of shot clocks, James is shooting 65.2 percent over the last two games and 67.6 percent over the last three. This season, James' field goal percentage is .536, the second-highest of her career (.538 as a freshman).
 
LANDING GETS INTO THE ACTION
Freshman forward Amber Landing saw her first career minutes against Texas as her 6-foot-3 frame helped to combat the Longhorns size in the post. Landing played four minutes and took one shot. She also picked up her first career block. Only one newcomer on the roster has yet to see action this year: Kiara Scott.
 
HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
Little Rock has had an incredible home-court advantage over the last two seasons, going 13-1 in 2013-14 and 2014-15 for a .929 winning percentage. The Trojans were also 9-0 at home in conference play in 2014-15, finishing their Sun Belt slate undefeated at home. The team has done this four times in its history now under Joe Foley, going 9-0 in 2007-08, 2009-10, 2013-14 and 2014-15. Overall at the Jack Stephens Center, Little Rock is 127-24, a winning percentage of .841. The Trojans last lost a home conference game in January 2013, a streak of 24 straight wins.
 
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Texas:

• Shanity James scored her 1,000th career point.
• Alexius Dawn tallied her 400th career point.

Coming soon:

• Shanity James is one block away from fifth all-time in Trojan history and eight defensive rebounds shy of 400
• Keanna Keys needs three more defensive rebounds for 100.
• Kaitlyn Pratt needs 11 more rebounds for her 300th.

 
UP NEXT
Little Rock has another full week off between games after playing Tulsa, as the Trojans are set to take on Missouri State on Dec. 20 at 3 p.m. The game is part of a doubleheader with the undefeated Little Rock men, as the men will take on Northern Arizona at 1 p.m.