LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (2/25/2012) — The
Arkansas State Red Wolves trailed UALR by just five at halftime, but a 15-2 run
out of the break by the Trojans was too much for ASU to overcome as the Red Wolves
fell 59-43 Saturday afternoon in Sun Belt Conference women's basketball action at the Jack Stephens Center.
Arkansas State (12-17, 6-10) trailed
29-24 at the half, but UALR (17-12, 12-4) capitalized on its advantage on the
glass to build a 44-26 lead with 12 minutes to play.
The Trojans finished the game with a
45-22 advantage on the boards and held the Red Wolves to 27.3 percent shooting in
the second half.
Arkansas State was led by senior NeNe
Hurst- McLennan with 19 points. Junior
Ashley Olvera added 12 points and sophomore Jane Morrill finished with 10
points, her 27th double-digit scoring game of the season.
Senior Marian Kursh led UALR with 21
points and 12 rebounds, and senior Britteni Williams added 10 points and 16
rebounds.
“It was certainly a game of two
different halves,” said ASU head coach Brian Boyer. “I thought in the first half, we competed really
well. We had some opportunities to make
it an even better half, we just didn't finish some pretty easy shots. That, and their second chances hurt us. I think of their first 17 points, nine were
off of offensive rebounds. At the half,
we felt if we could do a better job of resolving that, we would be okay. But we
didn't get it resolved, and in the second half it got worse.”
The Trojans built their advantage to
55-31 with 5:11 remaining on a layup from Williams before a late push by the
Red Wolves cut the deficit to 16.
For the game, the Red Wolves finished
the day shooting 15-of-49 (.306) while UALR hit 22 of 57 attempts (.407). Arkansas State was a perfect 10-of-10 from
the free throw line, while UALR went 12-of-15 (.800).
Arkansas State will now move on to the
March 3-6 Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Hot Springs. The Red Wolves enter the tournament as the
No. 5 seed from the West division and will face South Alabama, the No. 4 seed
from the East division March 3 at 2:30 p.m.
