Pratt Drops 24 as Trojans Beat Golden Eagles

LITTLE ROCK – Kaitlyn Pratt scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed a team-best 12 rebounds to lead the Little Rock women's basketball team to a 56-50 victory over Oral Roberts at the Jack Stephens Center on Thursday night.
 
Little Rock (4-4) struggled on offense for much of the evening, shooting just 26 percent from the field in the first half. But Pratt picked up 15 points – 12 in the fourth quarter – and the Trojans shot 51 percent from the field in the second half to outlast Oral Roberts (3-4).
 
The win is the Trojans' third straight this season and fifth straight over the Golden Eagles.
 
Besides Pratt's big offensive night, Sharde' Collins reached double-figure scoring with 14 points. Ronjanae DeGray finished with 6 points and tied a career-high with nine rebounds. Raeayana DeGray also sparked the Trojan offense with 7 points off the bench in the second half.
 
Little Rock held Oral Roberts without a field goal for more than seven minutes to start the game and held a 10-5 lead after the first quarter. The Golden Eagles picked up their offense a bit in the second period, but the Trojans still held a 20-18 lead at the break. The teams combined to go 15 of 56 from the field in the first half, a shooting percentage of 27 percent.
 
In the third quarter, Oral Roberts jumped out to a 7-point lead – its largest of the game – with 1:40 left in the period. But the Trojans got that spark from Raeyana DeGray at that point when DeGray made a turnaround jumper and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to close the quarter on a 7-0 Trojan run.
 
Little Rock then scored the next 3 points to start the fourth quarter to cap a 10-0 run. The team never trailed again as Pratt poured in 10 points from the field and five free throws. The senior finished 8 of 8 from the free-throw line.
 
The Trojans return to the road this weekend, heading to nearby Memphis for a Sunday game against the Tigers at 2 p.m.