Defense Extends Trojans' Winning Streak to Eight

ATLANTA – The Little Rock women's basketball team's league-leading defense was on display again at Georgia State on Thursday evening.
 
The Trojans (13-11, 10-4 Sun Belt) did not allow the Panthers (9-15, 4-11) to score in double digits in a quarter until the fourth and did enough on offense themselves, defeating the Panthers 54-39 at GSU Sports Arena. Little Rock officially clinched a berth in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament with the victory.
 
Georgia State committed 24 turnovers in the game and Little Rock finished with 11 steals while holding the Panthers to just 40 total shots. By comparison, Little Rock attempted 60 shots.
 
The Trojans entered Thursday game allowing just 51.4 points per game in Sun Belt play, and that number dropped to 50.7 with the win.
 
Sharde' Collins scored 15 points to lead Little Rock, and Keanna Keys had just her second career double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
 
Keys' double-double numbers started accumulating very fast, as she had seven rebounds in the first 15 minutes of the game. She would pick up the scoring pace in the fourth quarter, reaching the double-double with about five minutes remaining.
 
The victory was Little Rock's eighth straight and keeps the team all alone in second place in the Sun Belt Conference standings. Little Rock has now won at least 11 conference games in each of the last nine seasons.
 
The first quarter was the only time all night that Georgia State held a lead. The Trojans had five turnovers in the first five minutes, helping Georgia State to a 6-2 lead at the first media timeout. But Little Rock cut down on the turnovers for the rest of the quarter and used a 6-0 run to take a 10-8 lead into the second quarter. The Panthers made 44.4 percent of their field goal attempts in the period but had nine turnovers by its end.
 
Little Rock would never trail again.
 
The Trojans expanded their lead to 11 points at halftime, where the Panthers had managed just 12 total points. Georgia State scored only 4 points in the second quarter on 2 of 8 shooting from the field, and the Trojans added 13 to hold a 23-12 lead at the break.
 
The third quarter saw the Trojans expand its lead even more as they held the Panthers to 9 total points. In the fourth quarter, Little Rock led by as many as 19 before the Georgia State offense finally kicked in. Each team scored 18 in the fourth quarter as Little Rock won by 15.
 
Little Rock used just six players during the game while the Panthers played 12. Little Rock's Monique Townson, Alexius Dawn and Collins played all 40 minutes of the game while Kaitlyn Pratt saw 35 minutes of action.  Keys got her double-double in just 21 minutes.
 
Besides Keys and Collins, James also reached double-figure scoring, putting up 10 points. She had the second-most rebounds on the team as well with six. Townson and Collins had five boards apiece.
 
Townson led the way with five assists, and Pratt and Dawn had three steals each. Pratt had Little Rock's only block.
 
Next up, Little Rock will head to its other conference rival from Georgia for a game on Saturday. The Trojans will tip off with Georgia Southern in Hanner Fieldhouse at 3:30 p.m. central time.