Trojans Fall Short Against #6 Longhorns

LITTLE ROCK – The Little Rock women's basketball team completely dominated the third quarter against No. 6 Texas and held a 13-point lead at its end, but the Longhorns dominated the fourth quarter in even more impressive fashion to come from behind and claim a victory.
 
After outscoring the Longhorns 11-0 in the third quarter, the Trojans were outscored by the Longhorns 31-8 in the final period as Texas claimed a 66-56 victory at the Jack Stephens Center on Sunday afternoon.
 
Trojan junior Sharde' Collins set a new career high with 21 points, and Shanity James reached double-figure scoring for the sixth game this year with 12. James also led the Trojans with eight rebounds, and Alexius Dawn reached double figures with 12 points as she missed just one shot from inside the 3-point line.
 
James recorded her 1,000th career point on the afternoon, and Dawn picked up the 400th of hers career.
 
Little Rock (2-4) stayed right with Texas (7-0) for the entire first half, and led 37-35 going into the third quarter. That's when the team took over the game completely, putting up 11 points in the period and holding the No. 6 team in the country completely scoreless.

But the lead was not to last.
 
The Longhorns blitzed the Trojans right away in the fourth quarter offensively and switched to a zone defensively, keeping Little Rock off the board. Going back to midway through the third quarter, the Trojans went almost exactly 10 minutes without scoring. A 48-35 lead at the start of the frame became a 50-48 deficit before a James layup finally broke a 15-0 Texas run.
 
The Longhorns put up 12 points in the paint and got 8 points off Trojan turnovers in the fourth quarter. Little Rock, meanwhile, scored just one basket in the period's first nine minutes and never threatened to retake the lead.
 
Three different Trojans – James, Dawn and Monique Townson – tied for the team lead with four assists at the end of the night. James and Amber Landing each had a block, and Dawn led the team with three steals.
 
An exciting first quarter greeted the fans in attendance, as the teams traded a lead back and forth for most of it. Little Rock got out to a 10-9 lead at the first media timeout thanks to four points from Shanity James, and the team was ahead 12-9 after that on two Collins free throws.
 
But Texas fought back immediately with an 8-0 to take a 17-12 lead just 90 seconds later. The Trojans did not quit, getting two fast-break layups from Dawn and another from Collins in the remainder of the period, trailing just 21-20 after the first 10 minutes. James and Collins had 6 points apiece in the first quarter.
 
That 20-point first quarter was the team's third-best scoring quarter of the year.
 
In the second quarter, the Longhorns' offense faded a bit while the Trojans continued to pour it on. Collins added 6 more points in the first five minutes, bringing her total to 12, and the team was shooting a blistering 65 percent from the field. At the first media timeout, Little Rock was leading the Longhorns 30-25, its largest lead of the game.
 
Collins quickly broke her career high with another basket after the media timeout, bringing her point total to 14. And Little Rock never lost the lead in the last five minutes of the period, getting a jumper from Townson, a 3-pointer from Townson and that Collins jumper to go on a mini 7-2 run that extended the lead to 37-31 with a minute left in the half. Texas closed the period on a 4-0 run, giving the Trojans a narrow 37-35 lead at the break.
 
The third quarter completely belong to the Trojans. Little Rock did not allow Texas to score a point until the period had expired, and Little Rock got 11 in a row to open up a 13-point lead. Dawn had the team's first 6 points of the quarter on two layups and a jumper, forcing Texas to take a timeout. But after that, Collins drained a 3-pointer and Dawn got another fast-break layup, extending Little Rock's lead to 48-35 with 4:10 left in the period.
 
That would be the ending score of the quarter, as neither team was able to score in the final four minutes. That scoreless streak extended six minutes into the fourth quarter for the Trojans while Texas was able to begin scoring immediately in the fourth.
 
Freshman Amber Landing made her Trojan debut in the first half, and she finished the game with four minutes of game time. Classmate Deja McKinney also saw action in the waning minutes.
 
Little Rock will have a week to recover after Sunday's game, as the team does not play again until the following Sunday. The Trojans are set for a 2 p.m. game with Tulsa at the Jack Stephens Center on Dec. 13.