Little Rock Wins 20th, Coasts Past Lindenwood

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Sali Kourouma showed why she's the national leader in player defensive rating. Grabbing a career-high six steals and four defensive rebounds, Kourouma showed how effective she is defensively while also scoring a game-high 26 points as Little Rock coasted past Lindenwood, 64-50, to reach the 20-win threshold as the regular season came to a close on Saturday.
 
Little Rock (20-9, 17-1 Ohio Valley) forced 20 Lindenwood turnovers to reach 20 wins for the 13^th time in the past 20 years as the OVC regular season champions put a tidy bow on the regular season, their first in the league.
 
The Trojans were effective from the floor, shooting nearly 53% while the host Lions (2-24, 1-17) held serve with Little Rock for three quarters.
 
Kourouma was an impressive 12 for 22 form the field, seemingly scoring at will against Lindenwood. She tallied 12 points before half and scored 10 points in the fourth quarter alone.
 
Jaiyah Harris-Smith sliced and diced through the Lindenwood defense, grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds with five assists to her credit. She also added two steals. In all, the Trojans recorded 11 steals in the game with Tia Harvey adding a pair to go along with her 10 points while Hailey Hohenecker grabbing a steal and scoring two points.
 
Angelique Francis cruised to 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting with two rebounds and two assists. She was one of six Trojans to be credited with an assist in the game while Jayla Brooks, standing at an imposing 5-feet, 7-inches, recorded the only block of the game for the Trojans as she elevated to stuff the lanky 5-foot-9 Devin Fuhring.
 
Despite being stuffed by Brooks, Fuhring led the Lions with 17 points while Mary McGrath scored 12. The rest of the team, however, was just 8 of 27 (29%) from the field and scored just 31 points.
 
Little Rock had a balanced scoring effort, scoring 16 points in each of the four quarters. The Trojans had seven players contribute points in the contest.
 
Heading to the semifinals of their conference tournament for the 15^th time in the past 16 years – the third-longest streak in the country – Little Rock now awaits the results of the first two rounds of OVC Tournament play. The Trojans will first tip in Evansville on Wednesday, March 3 at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
 
For the latest information on Little Rock Basketball, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockWBB on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
 
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