Trojans Stay on Road to Take on Texas State

GM 16 >> Little Rock (5-10, 3-3 SBC) at Texas State (8-7, 3-2 SBC)
Thursday, Jan. 21 • 5:30 p.m. (CST)
San Marcos, Texas • Strahan Coliseum
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes
Radio: Trey Schaap (PxP) on 920 AM
 
LITTLE ROCK – For the third time this season, the Trojan women's basketball team will be headed to Texas. This time, the opponent is Sun Belt Conference rival Texas State. Little Rock and the Bobcats are set for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff on Thursday.
 
TIP OFF

• Little Rock is coming off a very tight game at Arkansas State on Monday, a game that saw the Trojans lose by 13 points despite being tied with the Red Wolves with seven minutes to play.
• Shanity James and Kaitlyn Pratt earned double-doubles in the game against Arkansas State, marking the first time the Trojans have had two double-doubles in one game since December 2013.
• Pratt set a new career high with 21 points in the game, and James tied a career high with 13 rebounds against the Red Wolves.
• Little Rock was outscored 23-12 in the fourth quarter at Arkansas State. Aundrea Gamble scored 19 of her 27 points in the second half.
• Joe Foley now has 249 career victories at Little Rock, one away from 250.
• The Trojans are fourth in the Sun Belt in field goal percentage at .399 and fifth in the league in assists with 11.6 per game.
• Little Rock enters Thursday's game in fifth place in the league standings.
• The Trojans have a 6-3 edge in the all-time series against the Bobcats including four straight wins dating back to January 2014.

 
ABOUT THE TROJANS
Little Rock dropped a close game in its most recent outing, falling to rival Arkansas State by a 66-53 score. The Trojans got double-doubles from Shanity James (20 points, 13 rebounds) and Kaitlyn Pratt (21 points, 11 rebounds), but that was not enough to overcome Aundrea Gamble and the Red Wolves. The Trojans did not make a 3-pointer in the game and were outscored 23-12 in the fourth quarter in the loss. Little Rock sits fifth in the conference standings entering Thursday's 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 TEXAS STATE

• The Bobcats, based in San Marcos, Texas, are 8-7 on the season with a 3-2 mark in Sun Belt Conference play. They are coming off a split weekend where they defeated South Alabama but lost to Troy. Their other league wins were against the Georgia schools while their loss came at the hands of Appalachian State.
• Out of conference play, Texas State defeated St. Edward's, North Texas, UT-San Antonio, Texas A&M-Commerce and Houston Baptist. Their losses were to Texas A&M, Iowa State, Idaho, Duke and Missouri.
• Kaitlin Walla is leading the Bobcats in scoring with 12.1 points per game, and Taeler Deer has 11.8 points per game. In rebounding, De'Jionae Calloway tops the roster with 7.7 per game while Ericka May is close behind with 7.1 boards per game.
• The Bobcats are fifth in the Sun Belt in scoring offense (63.9 ppg) and free-throw percentage (.700) but second in 3-point percentage (.338). Deer's .800 free-throw percentage is second in the league.
• Coach Zenarae Antoine is in her fourth year with the Bobcats in 2015-16. She has an all-time record of 68-72 with Texas State.

 
THE SERIES AGAINST TEXAS STATE
The Trojans and Bobcats have played eight times, and Little Rock holds a 6-3 advantage that it earned with three wins last year. When the teams last met in the Sun Belt Tournament Semifinals on March 13, the Trojans walloped the Bobcats to the tune of an 87-44 victory. In the team's last three meetings, Little Rock's average margin of victory was 30 points.
 
A WIN AGAINST TEXAS STATE WOULD…
…be the team's fourth straight win against the Bobcats…be the team's second straight win at Strahan Coliseum…put the Trojans above .500 in league play…be Joe Foley's 706th career win…be Joe Foley's 250th win at Little Rock.
 
LITTLE ROCK VS. THE SUN BELT
In the last nine years, Little Rock has done a tremendous job in its conference games, claiming at least 12 victories in each of those years. The Trojans have not finished below .500 in the Sun Belt since the 2005-06 season, Joe Foley's third year. Little Rock also won the West Division Championship for six consecutive seasons when the league still had divisions. Over the last 10 seasons including 2015-16, the Trojans hold a record of 132-36 in the league and have claimed the outright regular-season championship once and the tournament championship three times.
 
DOUBLE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Kaitlyn Pratt and Shanity James combined for very impressive stat lines on Monday at Arkansas State with both recording double-doubles against the Red Wolves. Pratt had 21 points and 11 rebounds while James had 20 points and 13 rebounds. That marks the first time Little Rock has had two players with double-doubles in a single game since James and Pratt did the same against Incarnate Word in December 2013. Monday's game was also the first time two Trojans had 10 or more rebounds since that Incarnate Word game in 2013. Little Rock had not seen two player score 20 or more points in a single game since the NCAA Tournament First Round game in March 2015.
 
PRATT AND JAMES GET NEW HIGHS
Within those double-doubles Pratt and James recorded on Monday came two career highs. Kaitlyn Pratt's 21 points was the best in her Trojan career as she went 8 of 16 from the floor. James, meanwhile, set a new season high with those 13 rebounds. Her career high of 15 rebounds came against Louisiana in her freshman year.
 
POINTS IN THE PAINT
Thanks largely to Pratt and James, the Trojans dominated in the paint against the Red Wolves on Monday. Of the team's 53 total points, 46 came in the paint. That is a total of 86.7 percent, easily the team's highest percentage all year. Little Rock's previous single-game high for points in the paint this season was 32.
 
REBOUNDING MARGIN
For the second consecutive game, the Trojans outrebounded their opponent by at least 10 rebounds while setting a single-game season high for total rebounds in the process. On Jan. 14 against Appalachian State, Little Rock had 43 rebounds to the Mountaineers' 33. On Monday, Little Rock had 44 rebounds while Arkansas State managed 33. The Trojans' have the second-best rebounding defense in the Sun Belt, allowing on average 34.3 rebounds per game.
 
UNIQUE STARTING COMBINATIONS
When Alexius Dawn, Sharde' Collins, Keanna Keys, Kaitlyn Pratt and Shanity James came out for the opening tip on Monday, that was the 10th different starting lineup the Trojans have used all year in 15 games. The team is 2-0 when Monique Townson, Kira Shepard, Dawn, Keys and James started this year. The most common starting lineup has been Townson, Dawn, James, Collins and Pratt. No player has started every game this year, and Dawn has started the most games with 13.
 
250 ON THE RADAR
Joe Foley picked up his 704th career victory against Appalachian State on Jan. 14, and that also became his 249th victory as coach of the Trojans. Foley now needs just one more victory to reach 250 in his Little Rock career, a career that is now in its 13th season. Foley is averaging 19.1 wins per year since he joined the Trojans including this season. He is second all-time on the list of winningest coaches in Sun Belt history and far and away the winningest coach in Trojan basketball history, men or women.
 
HOLDING TEAMS UNDER 60
A trend has emerged in the Trojans' five victories this year: in each of those victories, the Trojans' opponent has scored under 60 points. Little Rock is now 5-1 in games this year where the opponent has fewer than 60 points. When the Trojans' opponent scores 60 or more, Little Rock drops to 0-9. The opponents' point totals in Little Rock victories this year, in chronological order, is 52, 53, 34, 44 and 50. All five of the Trojans' wins this year have also come when the Trojans have fewer turnovers than their opponents, when the team has a better field goal percentage than its opponent and when the Trojans are leading with five minutes remaining.
 
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Arkansas State:

• Shanity James got her 700th career rebound and moved up to third all-time in Trojan history in that category.
• Alexius Dawn scored her 500th point.
• Monique Townson got her 50th career rebound.

Coming soon:

• Shanity James needs three more steals for 100 and six more offensive rebounds to tie the program record at 283. Thirteen more points will put her at 1,100 in her career.
• Kaitlyn Pratt's next made free throw will be her 100th.

 
UP NEXT
The Trojans will stay in the Lone Star State until their next game when they take on the Mavericks of UT Arlington. That contest is set for Saturday at 5 p.m. at College Park Center.