JONESBORO, AR ? The Arkansas State women's basketball team turned in its best defensive performance of the season as the Lady Indians downed Alabama A&M, 61-38 on Saturday night at the Convocation Center. The 38 points scored is the fourth lowest scoring output for an opposing team in the 19-year history of the Convocation Center.
“I am extremely pleased with our defensive effort the team turned in tonight,” head coach Brian Boyer said. “We knew we had to concentrate more on the defensive end and made that a priority all week in practice. Tonight we came out and got after it defensively and it showed on the scoreboard.”
The victory extended the Lady Indians' home winning streak to 16-straight games which is the second longest in program history. The winning streak is also the 12th longest current steak in NCAA Division I women's basketball.
The Lady Indian (5-3) defense held the Lady Bulldogs to just 17-of-62 (27.4%) from the field and one-of-eight from three-point land. The Tribe forced Alabama A&M into 23 turnovers as the Lady Indians tallied 12 steals on the night. The 38 points scored by AAMU is the lowest since last season when ASU held South Alabama to 37 points.
Junior center Adrianne Davie notched her fourth double-double of the season and 27th double dip of her career as she scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds in just 29 minutes of action. Davie was all over the glass in the first half as she grabbed 13 rebounds in the opening frame.
“Adrianne just competes each and every night with everything that she has. She was very aggressive tonight on the glass and got us going offensively in the second half,” Boyer said.
The Lady Indians started slowly against Alabama A&M (2-3) as the Lady Bulldogs jumped out to a five point lead at 19-14 at the 8:40 mark of the first half. The Tribe defense stepped up its pressure to close out the half as ASU did not allow another point by AAMU before halftime. The Lady Indians scored 10 unanswered points to go into the locker room up, 24-19.
The Lady Indians held Alabama A&M to just eight field goals in the first half as the Lady Bulldogs shot just 22.9 percent from the field. The Tribe on the other hand connected on 31.3 percent from the field in the opening half as it took a six point lead.
The Lady Indians came out in the second half and took control of the game from the very start as they scored the first five points of the half. The Tribe out-scored the Lady Bulldogs 25-8 in the first 12 minutes of the second half to put the game out of reach.
The Lady Indians' offense came to life in the second half as it scored 37 points, one shy of Lady Bulldogs' total for the game. The Tribe connected on 52 percent of its shots from the field while limiting Alabama A&M to just 33.3 percent in the second half. The Lady Indians also dominated the glass as they out-rebounded AAMU, 48-38 in the game.
Junior guard Rudy Sims paced the Tribe attack on the night as she scored 12 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out three assists and tallied two steals in the all-around effort. Freshman guard Caroline Starr added seven points, four rebounds and three steals in just 14 minutes of action off of the bench.
The Lady Indians had 12 different players score on the night including seven points by sophomore center Rachel Brown. Senior guard Amber Abraham added six points and classmate Ronnie Maglaughlin grabbed a career-high six rebounds in the team effort for ASU.
Alabama A&M was paced by Christian Malone as she scored a team-high eight points. The Lady Bulldogs also had seven points from Tamika Green as they were limited all night long by the Tribe defense.
The Lady Indians will be back in action next weekend as they travel to Las Vegas, NV for the Duel in the Desert Classic. The Lady Indians will open up with 10th ranked Notre Dame in the opening round of the Classic on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. (CT)
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