Two Double-Doubles Not Enough for LR vs. Red Wolves

JONESBORO – Little Rock had a tremendous night in the post against Arkansas State on Thursday, getting matching double-doubles from Kaitlyn Pratt and Shanity James.
 
But despite leading for a good chunk of the game and keeping things close against the league leaders all night, the Trojans could not score late as the Red Wolves came away with a 66-53 victory at the Convocation Center.
 
The Red Wolves (12-3, 6-0 Sun Belt conference), who entered the fourth quarter leading by just 2 points at 43-41, outscored the Trojans (5-10, 3-3) by a 23-12 margin in the final period.
 
The contest was tied at 47-47 with 7:41 remaining before Arkansas State scored 19 of the final 25 points to pull away. The Red Wolves ended the game on a 9-0 run in front of a rowdy home crowd. Prior to Arkansas State taking over in the fourth quarter, the game was tied 11 different times and had 11 different lead changes.
 
Pratt led the Trojans with 21 points – a new career high – and earned a double-double thanks to 11 rebounds. James had 20 points for Little Rock and got her double-double with a game-high 13 rebounds. Combined, Pratt and James shot 18 of 37 from the field or 48.6 percent. Of the Trojans' 53 total points, 46 came in the paint.
 
The last time Little Rock had two players with double-doubles in the same game was against Incarnate Word on Dec. 10, 2013. In that contest, Pratt scored 16 and had 15 boards while James scored 13 and had 11 boards.
 
The forwards' combined effort on Monday night fell short of what the team needed to beat Arkansas State, though. An Alexius Dawn under-the-basket layup with 6:29 remaining brought the Trojans within 1 point at 50-49. But a Khadija Brown-Haywood 3-pointer and a Brittney Gill layup made it a 55-49 lead for the Red Wolves, their largest lead of the game to that point.
 
Little Rock got within 4 points on its next possession, but Arkansas State outscored the Trojans 11-2 in the last five minutes to clinch the victory. The Trojans went 1 of their last 5 shots from the field.
 
Besides James and Pratt, no other Trojan had more than 4 points. Lauren Bradshaw had five blocks for the Red Wolves, and Aundrea Gamble finished with 27 points. Of those 27, 19 came in the second half.
 
The Trojans seemed to have the edge in the first four minutes, taking leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 6-4 thanks to solid defense and an offense that moved the ball well. But three turnovers in a 90-second span led to a Gamble fast-break layup and a Red Wolves 3-pointer that gave the home team a 9-6 lead at the first media timeout.
 
From there, though, the Trojans ended the quarter on a 10-2 run. Little Rock got points at the free-throw line from Pratt and Townson as well as an off-the glass jumper from Ronjanae DeGray. The Red Wolves shot just 27.8 percent from the floor in the first quarter as the Trojans held a 16-10 lead after one.
 
After two scoreless minutes to begin the second quarter, Arkansas State got a 3-pointer from Jessica Flanery that caused the Trojans to take a timeout. The teams would exchange the lead multiple times in the rest of the quarter, and the Trojans went into halftime with a narrow 26-25 lead.
 
The start of the third quarter saw the Red Wolves take a 31-28 lead – tied for their largest of the game to that point before the Trojans scored 7 of the next 9 points. Pratt was responsible for the biggest momentum-swinging play during that time, getting a rebound off a teammate's shot, getting her own offensive rebound and then getting her own offensive rebound again before completing an and-1 layup to give the Trojans a 35-33 lead at the media timeout. She had 15 points and nine rebounds at that time.
 
With Little Rock leading 39-35 a minute later, though, the Red Wolves went on a momentum-changing 8-0 run that got the home crowd back into the game. They took a 43-39 lead with that run, and the Trojans cut it to 43-41 entering the final quarter. Pratt completed her double-double late in the quarter and had 17 points and 11 rebounds before the last 10 minutes.
 
James' final rebound of the night was the 700th of her career. Alexius Dawn scored her 500th career point on her only made basket of the game. Monique Townson also reached 50 career rebounds.
 
Little Rock stays on the road this week, traveling to its Sun Belt opponents from Texas. The first game of the Texas trip will be on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. against Texas State, and the team follows that with a Saturday showdown at UT Arlington at 5 p.m.