Trojans Head to Arlington to Take on Mavericks

GM 17 >> Little Rock (5-11, 3-4 SBC) at UT Arlington (7-9, 2-4 SBC)
Saturday, Jan. 23 • 5 p.m. (CST)
Arlington, Texas • College Park Center
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes
Radio: Trey Schaap (PxP) on 920 AM
 
LITTLE ROCK – The Little Rock women's basketball team will be playing its final game in Texas this season on Saturday, seeking to break a two-game losing streak when it battles UT Arlington at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
 
TIP OFF

• In its most recent game at Texas State on Thursday, the Trojans fell behind early in the second half and could not make their second comeback of the night in a loss to the Bobcats.
• Kaitlyn Pratt scored a team-high 16 points and added eight rebounds against Texas State.
• Little Rock used its 11th different starting lineup of the season against the Bobcats, starting freshmen Deja McKinney and Ronjanae DeGray for the first time in their careers.
• The Trojans also emptied the bench against the Bobcats, using 11 of its 14 players for the first time this season. Amber Landing and Autummn Williams got their first career points late in the game.
• Joe Foley now has 249 career victories at Little Rock, one away from 250.
• The Trojans are fifth in the Sun Belt in field goal percentage at .398.
• Little Rock enters Thursday's game in fifth place in the league standings.
• The Trojans led the all-time series with the Mavericks 4-2 and have won four in a row in the series since the Mavericks joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2013.

 
ABOUT THE TROJANS
Little Rock fell behind by 10 points early in the first quarter at Texas State on Thursday night, but the Trojans managed to come from behind and take a lead shortly before halftime. But the Trojans could not recover when Texas State took a similar lead in the second half and lost by a 67-57 score. Little Rock has not won a game this season when its opponent scores more than 60 points. The Trojans had a game-high 16 points from Kaitlyn Pratt against the Bobcats and used plenty of freshmen in larger roles than usual during the loss.
 
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 UT ARLINGTON

• The Mavericks, based in Arlington, Texas, hold a 7-9 record on the year and are 2-4 in league play. They are currently on a three-game losing streak, suffering losses to Troy, South Alabama and Arkansas State in order.
• UT Arlington's league wins have come against Georgia Southern and Appalachian State. In non-league play, they have Division I wins against Jacksonville, Stephen F. Austin, Houston Baptist and UTSA.
• Cierra Johnson is UTA's leading scorer, putting up 11.2 points per game. She is joined in double figures by Amara Wainwright and her 10.1 points per game. Rebekah VanDijk is the team's top rebounder with 8.0 boards per game and also scores in double figures with 10.6 points per game.
• The Mavericks have the third-best scoring defense in the league, allowing just 57.7 points per game. They are also the best 3-point shooting team in the Sun Belt with a 3-point percentage of 35.1 percent.
• Coach Krista Gerlich, now in her third year with the team, has a 28-47 record as the Mavericks' head coach.

 
THE SERIES AGAINST UT ARLINGTON
Little Rock and UT Arlington have met six times in their history, with the Trojans holding a 4-2 edge and a four-game winning streak. Little Rock has won every game since the Mavericks joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2013 after losing the first two meetings in the mid-2000s when the Mavericks were in another league. UT Arlington has never scored more than 60 points against the Trojans. Little Rock won last year's meetings by 28 and 10 points.
 
A WIN AGAINST UT ARLINGTON WOULD…
…be the team's fifth straight win against the Mavericks…be the team's third straight win at College Park Center…put the Trojans at  .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 132-37 in the league and have claimed the outright regular-season championship once and the tournament championship three times.
 
PRATT'S SCORING STREAK
Junior Kaitlyn Pratt has been on the hottest scoring streak of any Trojan player in the last two weeks, putting up four consecutive double-digit scoring streaks. She extended that streak with a team-high 16 points against Texas State on Thursday. Previously she had 21 points against Arkansas State, 16 against Appalachian State and 10 against ULM. She also scored 17 at Troy on Jan. 2. Pratt is averaging 8.4 points per game this season and is second on the team with 6.3 rebounds per game.
 
JAMES APPROACHING THE TOP
With 280 career offensive rebounds, senior Shanity James is close to taking over the top spot in Little Rock history in that category. James needs just three more to tie Eplunus Brooks for the all-time lead in offensive rebounds with 283. She is also third all-time in total rebounds with 707 and fourth all-time in defensive rebounds with 427. The offensive/defensive rebounding statistic has only been tracked since the 1999-2000 season.
 
UNIQUE STARTING COMBINATIONS
When Kira Shepard, Ronjanae DeGray, Deja McKinney, Keanna Keys and Monique Townson came out for the opening tip on Thursday, that was the 11th different starting lineup the Trojans have used all year in 16 games. In fact, that game marked the first time DeGray and McKinney – both freshman – had earned a start. 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.
 
MCKINNEY NEW CAREER HIGH
While earning her first career start on Thursday at Texas State, freshman Deja McKinney put up a new career high in scoring. She went 2 of 10 from the field but made one 3-pointer, and she also had two made free throws to give her a total of 7 points. Her previous career high was just 3 points at Troy on Jan. 2.
 
FIRST CAREER POINTS
Newcomers Autummn Williams and Amber Landing got their first career points against Texas State on Thursday night, scoring late in the game after coming off the bench. Williams went 2 of 3 from the field and put up 4 points while Landing was 1 of 1 and had 2 points. They had previously played in a combined seven games without scoring.
 
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.
 
REBOUNDING MARGIN
For the third consecutive game, the Trojans outrebounded their opponent by at least 10 rebounds. 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. And on Thursday, the Trojans picked up 38 rebounds while only allowing Texas State to have 26. The Trojans' have the second-best rebounding defense in the Sun Belt, allowing on average 33.8 rebounds per game.
 
TOWNSON REBOUNDS
Sophomore Monique Townson had a solid outing at Texas State, tying her career high with six rebounds against the Bobcats. She also put up 9 points, three more than her season average, to reach 100 points on the season.
 
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
Against Texas State:

• Kaitlyn Pratt made her 100th career free throw.
• Alexius Dawn played in her 50th career game.

Coming soon:

• Shanity James needs one more steal for 100 and three more offensive rebounds to tie the program record at 283. Four more points will put her at 1,100 in her career.
• Kaitlyn Pratt needs 17 more points for 500 in her career.
• Kira Shepard is three points shy of 50.

 
UP NEXT
Little Rock will return home for its next four games, beginning that season-long home stretch by taking on Georgia Southern at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday and Georgia State at 4 p.m. on Saturday.