Trojans Earn #2 Seed in SBC With Win Over Bobcats

LITTLE ROCK – The Trojan women's basketball team clinched the No. 2 seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament while getting some revenge from its last loss of the season on Saturday night.
 
Little Rock's defense held its seventh consecutive opponent under 50 points and Shanity James posted a double-double in a 57-45 win over Texas State at the Jack Stephens Center.
 
The victory – the Trojans' 11th straight – combined with a loss by Louisiana against South Alabama on Saturday, guarantees Little Rock (16-11, 14-4 Sun Belt) the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament in New Orleans on March 8-11. Little Rock will play the No. 7 seed in the first round on March 8 at 5 p.m.
 
Texas State (12-15, 7-10) was not helped Saturday by its 22 turnovers, resulting in 18 Little Rock points. The Bobcats shot just 37 percent from the field and had only three assists. The Bobcats are the last team to have beaten the Trojans, claiming a 67-57 win in San Marcos on Jan. 21.
 
Little Rock, meanwhile, got an excellent game from James. The senior, playing in her second-to-last home game at the Jack Stephens Center, led all players with 18 points and had 13 rebounds. Those 13 rebounds tied a season high and marked her fifth double-double of the year.
 
Alexius Dawn also scored in double figures, putting up 12 points. She also led the team with three steals.
 
The win gives the Trojans 14 Sun Belt victories for the second consecutive year and extends the team's winning streak to 11 games, its longest since the 2012-13 season. Little Rock also won its eighth consecutive game at the Jack Stephens Center. The Trojans have also swept through February, going 8-0 in the month.
 
Already leading by 10 points at halftime, Little Rock pulled away from Texas State in the third quarter. The Trojans scored the first 4 points of the period to take a 31-17 lead, and that would stretch to 16 points at 47-31 after two James free throws at the end of the quarter.
 
The Bobcats briefly got the Trojans' lead into single digits with 3:42 left in the game, but Little Rock got back-to-back James layups to put the game out of Texas State's reach.
 
Sharde' Collins finished the night with 8 points, while Kaitlyn Pratt and Monique Townson had 6 apiece. Keanna Keys put 7 points on the board and tied with Pratt and Townson with five rebounds. Keys also had the team's only block.
 
Little Rock shot 84.6 percent from the free-throw line, sinking 11 of 13 attempts to eclipse the 80 percent mark for the third consecutive night.
 
The first quarter began very slowly, with the Bobcats getting a basket on their first possession but then being held scoreless for the next five minutes. James had two layups in that span for the Trojans, and the game was tied at 4-4 at the first media timeout. The scoring didn't kick in much for the rest of the quarter, and Little Rock held just an 8-6 lead entering the second.
 
In the second quarter, though, the Trojans' offense got going. Little Rock put up 19 points in the period including 10 from Dawn. The senior hit two 3-pointers and had two layups, helping the home team extend its lead to 10 points at halftime. James also had 10 points at the break, and Little Rock's shooting had improved from 33 percent to 41 percent. Included in that second quarter was a 10-2 run that saw four straight made field goals. Little Rock got a Dawn 3-pointer and a Keys and-1 play in that span to take the larger lead.
 
Texas State was responsible for much of its own undoing in the first half, committing 14 turnovers and having no assists to its name. The Bobcats made just six of 20 field-goal attempts in the first two quarters.
 
The Trojans will play their final game of the season in front of the Jack Stephens Center crowd on Tuesday, battling Arkansas State in a showdown between the league's first- and second-place teams. Tipoff is set for 5:15 p.m.