Box Score LAFAYETTE, La. – The Trojans ended the Sun Belt regular season the way they began it.
After opening conference play with a victory over Louisiana way back on December 30, UALR ended Sun Belt action with a 68-66 win at the Cajundome on Thursday night.
Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson presented UALR with the championship trophy in the locker room after the game, and it was a victory the Trojans held onto for dear life in the final minutes.
Leading by as many as 22 points with 12:53 remaining in the contest, UALR (25-4, 18-2 Sun Belt) saw its lead slip away gradually as time wound down. UALR was ahead 58-42 with 7:31 left to play, and that's when Louisiana (18-10, 10-9) went on a 6-0 run to come back within 10 points. The Trojans got a jumper from Kiera Clark to extend the lead back to 12 points at 60-48, but the Cajuns earned another 6-0 run to make it a 60-54 game with 4:12 left.
An Alexius Dawn 3-pointer – her fifth of the night – got UALR back ahead by 9 points with 2:23 to play, but a succession of turnovers by the Trojans and made baskets by the Cajuns got the home team back within one score and got the home crowd energized.
Louisiana's press forced UALR to make bad passes, and a Jodi Quinn jumper with 10 seconds remaining had the Trojans' lead down to just 65-63. But over the last 10 seconds, sophomore Kaitlyn Pratt hit three free throws to give UALR a 5-point lead, and a Louisiana 3-pointer at the buzzer only made the final margin look closer.
With the victory, UALR sets new program records for conference wins in a season (18) and breaks the school record for regular-season victories in a year (25). The win also ties the Sun Belt all-time record for conference wins in a year. UALR also sweeps the regular-season series against Louisiana and has now won five consecutive games against the Cajuns.
UALR now has a full six days to recover before its next game, the Sun Belt Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. The Trojans will face the league's No. 8 seed, a yet-to-be-determined foe that could be either Georgia State or Appalachian State.
In Thursday's contest, three different players tied for the team lead with 17 points. Pratt, Dawn and Taylor Gault all reached 17 points. Those 17 were Pratt's highest total since Nov. 29 at Memphis, and she also finished the game with six rebounds. Gault was a terrific 6 of 7 from the field, and Pratt was 6 of 8.
Shanity James led the Trojans with eight boards, and Ka'Nesheia Cobbins topped the Trojans with eight assists. Dawn also grabbed three steals.
The Trojans had their best shooting night of the season, draining 62.2 percent of their field goal attempts (23-37). The team was also very impressive from long range, nailing 7 of 10 3-pointers. But a season-high 24 turnovers hampered the offense, and UALR had 13 in the second half as its 22-point lead dwindled to just 2.
UALR stretched its lead in the first half to as large as 15 points thanks mostly to a strong defensive run midway through the period. The Cajuns went nearly 10 full minutes without a field goal from the 15-minute mark to just before the clock hit five minutes. In that span, the Trojans scored 14 consecutive points to go from a 9-7 deficit to a 21-7 lead.
Dawn had three 3-pointers in the first half and went 3 for 4 from behind the arc overall to lead the team with 11 points at the break. Monique Townson also hit a 3-pointer, her first since Nov. 18 at Rice in her first game of the season.
UALR gave up two points on free throws to begin the second half, but after that the Trojans went on a lightning-fast 8-point run that put them back ahead by 14 points. Gault began it with a 3-pointer, and she then got a fast-break jumper after blocking a Cajuns shot on the other end. Dawn stole the ball on Louisiana's next possession, and she ended it with a pass to Pratt for an easy and-1 layup. That jumped UALR's advantage from 31-25 to 39-25.
The Trojans kept pushing, though, and scored 7 of the next 9 points in the game on a Dawn 3-pointer, a Pratt layup and two Gault free throws. That made it a 15-4 edge for the Trojans in the first 4:16 of the second half, and the team took a 19-point lead into the first media timeout that was seemingly out of Louisiana's reach.
But the Cajuns fought back as the crowd rallied behind them, just falling short of the comeback win.
Clark recorded her 100th career steal during the game, and Gault picked up her 700th career field goal.
UALR has this Saturday off, getting a bye date on the final regular-season day for league play. But the Trojans will return to Louisiana next week, traveling to New Orleans as the league's top seed in the conference tournament. UALR will face the No. 8 seed on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. in the tournament's first game.
