Box Score LITTLE ROCK – The UALR women's basketball team survived a tight contest against its biggest rival, downing Arkansas State 63-61 at the Jack Stephens Center on Thursday night.
The Trojans, who held a 60-49 lead with 2:24 left, saw their lead whittled down to just 2 points with eight seconds left after missed free throws and timely Red Wolves shooting tightened the gap. Arkansas State guard Aundrea Gamble missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game.
With the victory, UALR (22-3, 15-1 Sun Belt Conference) avenged an earlier loss to Arkansas State (17-8, 12-3) in Jonesboro by just 1 point. The Trojans are also now 2 1/2 games ahead of the Red Wolves in the Sun Belt Conference standings with four games left to play.
UALR now 15 wins in league play for the first time since 2009-10, and the Trojans are on a six-game winning streak while snapping Arkansas State's five-game streak. UALR successfully defended its home court yet again, winning its 23rd consecutive Sun Belt game in Little Rock.
The Trojans had four players score in double digits, and they were led by Taylor Gault's 22. The senior also tied a career high with six steals and moved into second place all-time at UALR with 103 career blocks. Besides Gault, Ka'Nesheia Cobbins (11), Shanity James (10) and Kiera Clark (10) reached at least 10 points. Cobbins was the team's top rebounder with five, and she was part of a three-way tie in assists as she, James and Alexius Dawn all had three.
The Trojans led by just 3 points at halftime, but the team slowly extended its lead to as many as 11 points with 4:42 to go. The Red Wolves cut the lead down to 3 points with 9:22 to play, and t hat's when UALR went on a small run to build their first double-digit lead of the evening. Cobbins hit two free throws, Gault had a jumper and a layup and Clark hit two jumpers in a four-minute span. A Cobbins layup gave the Trojans their 11-point lead with 4:42 left, and they kept that lead until the final three minutes.
With two minutes left, the Red Wolves switched tactics and began fouling UALR to lengthen the game. The tactic mostly worked, as UALR's poor free throw shooting on the night continued. The Trojans missed five free throws in the final two minutes including the front end of two 1-and-1 situations, giving Arkansas State new life.
The Red Wolves did not waste their possessions, hitting four consecutive baskets in the last two minutes including two 3-pointers after they had made only one all game before then. A layup by Khadi Brown-Haywood made it a 63-61 UALR lead, and James missed two free throws to keep Arkansas State alive.
With the clock winding down, though, Gamble was unable to hit the game-winner as her shot from the left side clanged off the back of the rim to give UALR the win.
During the contest, the Trojans shot just 14 of 28 from the free-throw line while Arkansas State was 12 of 16. UALR did manage to shoot 48 percent (24 of 50) from the field, though, and force 23 Red Wolves turnovers that resulted in 23 UALR points.
At the end of the game, UALR's defense was much better than it had been in Jonesboro three weeks earlier. The Trojans held Red Wolves' leading scorer Aundrea Gamble to just 9 points despite her averaging 19.8 per game coming into the night. Arkansas State was also largely ineffective from the 3-point line, making one 3-pointer in the game's first 38 minutes.
The game's first half was tight throughout, with neither team able to grab a lead larger than 5 points through the first 15 minutes. Arkansas State held a 19-15 lead with 6:30 left in the half, and that's when UALR went on a big run to take its biggest lead of the half.
James and Gault combined for layups to tie the game at 19-19, and then James made another layup off the front of the rim to give UALR a 21-19 lead. Dawn drained a jumper from the right side to make it a 4-point Trojan advantage while the Red Wolves coughed the ball up with turnovers and offensive fouls.
The Trojans extended the lead to 25-19 on a layup by Gault, and a free throw by the senior gave UALR a 26-19 lead, its biggest of the half.
But poor free throw shooting kept UALR from leading by even more points. The Trojans made just four of 12 attempts from the charity stripe in the half as Gault missed three and James missed four attempts. Still, Gault led the team with 11 points and James had a team-high four rebounds as the Trojans led 27-24 at the break. The Red Wolves were not helped by 13 turnovers in the first 20 minutes, and the Trojans converted those turnovers into 13 points.
UALR will have a short turnaround and a long flight ahead of it before its next game. The Trojans will travel to Troy, Ala., to take on the Sun Belt's other Trojans on Saturday at 2 p.m. UALR defeated Troy 82-56 in Little Rock on Jan. 22.
