STARKVILLE, Miss. – Little Rock trailed by 21 points as the fourth quarter was about to begin at Starkville's Humphrey Coliseum when the arena went dark as power went out. It would prove to be prophetic.
Mississippi State, ranked 15
th in both polls, would out-score Little Rock 27-9 in the final quarter and claim the 89-50 win in front of 7,895 as both teams closed out non-conference play for the 2019-20 season.
Any hope of the Trojans (2-9) faring better than the electricity came to a close as Aliyah Matharu scored all of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter for Mississippi State (12-2).
Kyra Collier and
Teal Battle each scored 16 points to lead Little Rock while
Alayzha Knapp added 10 points.
Little Rock only trailed 37-23 at half and that came with Collier only scoring three points before intermission. The remaining 13 points out of the senior captain came as Little Rock remained a fly in the ointment for Mississippi State until midway through the third quarter, when the Bulldogs began to pull away.
Collier would also dish out three assists, moving into a tie for seventh all-time in career assists in Trojan history, matching the 278 career assists recorded by Pam Tiller (1981-85).
Kiana Anderson made her first career start and brought down a season-high seven rebounds for the true freshman.
Little Rock has now concluded the non-conference portion of its schedule as the 2019 calendar year comes to a close. The Trojans return to action on Jan. 2, 2020 as Little Rock opens up Sun Belt Conference play at Texas State.
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