Trojans Look to Bounce Back Thursday at Home

LITTLE ROCK- The Little Rock Trojans take a two-game losing streak into Thursday morning's matchup against Georgia Southern. The Trojans dropped a tightly-contest to rival Arkansas State 62-58, to drop into second place in the Sun Belt Conference. Little Rock will host the Eagles at the Jack Stephens Center who are 7-19 overall (2-13 Sun Belt). 

Full Size Run

Little Rock has never lost to Georgia Southern hold a 4-0 record against the Eagles at the Jack Stephens Center. The Trojans currently sit in second place, but are tied in the loss column with UT Arlington. Little Rock can still control their own destiny and can attain the top spot by winning all of their four remaining conference games.

A Down Pour, Raining Cats and Dogs

Ronjane DeGray busted out a 23-point performance to start conference play, two points shy of tying her career high. She passes Sharde Collins, who had 22 points to open conference play in 2016-17 against Louisiana, as having the most points for a Trojan in a SBC opener since Chastity Reed recorded 32 points against South Alabama to get Sun Belt things started in 2009-10. DeGray then notched her career high against Louisiana with a 25-point performance.

Nice to know ya, let's do it again?

Terrion Moore matched her career high with 13 points against Troy in the team's last meeting. This was a career high that she set exactly a year ago in the Trojan Arena. Moore set a new career-high of 17 points at Appalachian State where the sophomore went 8-10 from the field. In the following game against Arkansas State, Moore set yet another career high with a 20-point performance to lead the Trojans to a 68-55 win over the Red Wolves.

Dropping dimes, dropping dimes...

Sydney Chastain recorded a career-high nine assists in her performance at Appalachian State. The junior made her first start since Jan. 10 and helped her team to a 74-59 win over the Mountaineers. Terrion Moore notched a career-high nine assists against UT Arlington on Feb. 14, a game in which she played all 40 minutes

Double-Double, Maybe Even a 2X2

Ronjanae DeGray collected the seventh double-double of her career against UT Arlington while accumulating 18 points and 10 rebounds. DeGray's first double-double, 23 points and 13 rebounds, came last season against Louisiana in the season's finale. DeGray and Terrion Moore are the most recent Trojans to have registered double-doubles. DeGray tied her career high with 25 points in a win over Louisiana. By adding 11 rebounds, DeGray tallied her second double-double of the season. Kyra Collier got in on the action as well as she picked up a double-double over her own when she scored 17 points and grabbled 11 rebounds in the contest. This was the first time since 2016 that two Trojans recorded a double-double in the same game.

This my day, lucky you

Junior guard Kyra Collier exploded for a career-high 31 points at Louisiana Tech. She broke her previous record of 23 that was sent against Memphis last season. The North Little Rock product is the first Trojan to have a 30+ point since Taylor Gault's 31-point outbreak vs. Oral Roberts on Nov. 21 of 2012. Collier also recorded a perfect outing at the charity stripe, going eight-for-eight. In the squad's next game against FAU, Sydney Chastain set a few career marks when scoring five points and grabbing six rebounds. Her three steals were also the first of her collegiate career. Yanina Inkina tied her career-record for three-pointers with her pair she made against the Owls. The career setting trend continued against Rice. Teal Battle had a 19-point explosion against Rice Chastain topped her career-high again, this time recording eight points six of them coming from beyond the arc. Kiara Scott also etched a new career-high with six points, all of them coming from the three-point line. Scott followed up her career-performance by matching it in the exact same manor against Texas A&M. It's the first time in her career where she's logged back-to-back games with more than one field goal. Scott showed up her on court performances against Rice and Texas A&M at LSU. The senior scored a career-high seven points in the first start of her career. Continuing the career-high trend, freshman Antwainette Walker sank four field goals from the field and six free throws, totaling 14 points. She's the first freshman this season to set a career-high that's double-digits and the underclassman to do it the quickest since Tori Lasker poured in 21 points in the opening game of the 2017-2018 season. Sydney Chastain logged a career-high 12 points, going four-of-five from beyond the arc, and Raeyana ReGray tied her season-high output with 10 points. Terrion Moore grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds against the Golden Hurricane, pacing any player in the game, and leading the charge on the glass. Moore followed up her performance with a career-high four steal performance at Memphis. Teal Battle joined Moore in a career-high pursuit with three blocks against the Tigers, passing her previous record of two.

We Goin' Back to Back

Kyra Collier put up 20-point outings in back-to-back outings for the first time in her career. Her 21 points against Mississippi State and 22 points against WKU mark the second time in her career that she's been the leading scorer in consecutive contests (she last did it to open last season). She has the most recent uninterrupted 20-point games since Ronjanae DeGray put up 23 and 22 against ULM (12/31/17) and Georgia State (01/04/18). Sharde Collins stunted on them both, have a three-peat of games against South Alabama (01/21/17), ULM (01/26/17) and Louisiana (01/28/17). In those contests Collins tallied 29, 27 and 25. Collier led the home team against K-State with 15 points and she has been the Trojan's leading scoring for three sequential contests, the first time she has done so in her career. The North Little Rock product led the team in scoring again in Memphis, this time collecting 15 points.

Double-Double, No Toast, Well Done Fries

Little Rock Senior Ronjanae DeGray started the season with five consecutive games with double-figuring scoring outputs. She went on a run last year, starting against LSU, that spanned 16 games where she logged 10 or more points. After 10 points against WKU, DeGray has registered 10 or more points in six of the last seven contests. Teal Battle also logged 10 points against Texas A&M, collecting 10 or more points in back-to-back contests for the first time in her career. Yanina Inkina put up 14 points at LSU, marking her first double-digit scoring game of the season and the seventh of her career, registering the most points she scored since marking a career-high 15 points at South Alabama. She followed that performance with 11 against Mississippi State, establishing her first career run of back-to-back games with more than 10 points. 

Putting That Pen on Some Paper Over Here.

Little Rock added five players for 2019-2020 season during the early signing period. The recruiting class is made up of Alayzha Knapp from Union High School in Tulsa, Okla., Angelique Francis from MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, Nicole Hemphill from O'Connor High School in San Antonio, Texas, Kiana Anderson from Warren Easton High School in New Orleans, La. and Skyla Knight from Hoover High School in Hoover, Ala.

The Results Are In

The Trojans were voted No. 1 in the Sun Belt's preseason poll, receiving eight first-place first and accumulating 133 points overall. Right behind Little Rock was Troy, 131 points, getting four first place votes. The rest of the pool shook out as follows: Texas State, UTA, Arkansas State, South Alabama, Louisiana, Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State and ULM.

What's Cooler Than Being Cool?

Trojan senior Ronjanae DeGray was picked as the conference's Preseason Player of the Year along with being selected to the First-Team All-Conference squad. DeGray, coming off a season where she averaged 13.8 points, 5.6 boards and .508 shooting from the floor, is the returning statistical leader for numerous categories. The Odessa, Texas native was a Sun Belt Conference First Team selection for the regular season and conference tournament, started 11 contests and appeared in 32 games. She tallied her first career double-double by tying her season high with 23 points while putting up a career-high 13 rebounds in the Trojans' overtime win at Louisiana on March 3. DeGray earned Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week honors for the first time this season due to her stellar performances in the team's wins over ULM and Lousiana. The senior averaged 24 points, nine rebounds and shot 63.5 percent from the floor in the two contests.

Let Me See You Run It, Run It

Sophomore Tori Lasker received preseason recognition alongside DeGray, being selected third-team. Lasker saw the most playing time out of any freshman last season. She started 24 games and was one of only four Trojans to appear in all 33 contests. She drained a freshman record-setting 57 three-pointers, the sixth most in a single season, and dished out the second most assists, 89. Against Memphis, Lasker registered 21 points in her first collegiate game, a program record for a freshman debut.

I Will Try To Be Worthy of My Post

Joe Foley, the 2010, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2018 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year and 2010 Russell Athletic/WBCA Regional Coach of the Year, has led the Little Rock Women's Basketball program to 20-win seasons 11 of the last 12 years, outright Sun Belt Conference West Division titles in the final six years the Sun Belt had divisions, three Sun Belt regular-season championships, post-season appearances in 10 of the last 11 years – including five NCAA berths – and Sun Belt Conference Tournament titles in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2018. Foley has recorded a 768-244 (.759) career record and a 312-163 (.657) record at Little Rock as he begins his 16th season in 2018-19. Considered by many to be the best coaching job of his career, Foley led the Trojans back to the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18. Little Rock began the season with a 3-8 record in non-conference play with a signature win over Oklahoma at home. After the rough start, the Trojans found their groove in conference play as they tallied their second consecutive Sun Belt Regular-Season Championship after going 17-1 in conference play for the second straight year. This earned Foley his fifth Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year award — the second-most in league history. The Trojans went on to defeat Texas State by one point in the Sun Belt Tournament Championship to secure their fourth league tournament title and fifth NCAA Tournament bid. Ronjanae DeGray earned All-Sun Belt First Team honors while seniors Keanna Keys and Monique Townson took Third Team honors.

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