Little Rock WBB now 9-0 in Sun Belt
Little Rock Sports
Evan Drexler, Associate Director of Communications
LAFAYETTE, La. – Ronjanae DeGray had the best scoring day of her career, Sharde’ Collins broke the 20-point barrier for the third straight game and the Little Rock women’s basketball team improved to 9-0 in the Sun Belt Conference with a 82-64 victory over Louisiana at the Cajundome on Saturday evening.
DeGray got 25 points on 10-of-11 shooting, only missing a shot in the final two minutes of the game. DeGray added six rebounds and a personal-best six steals to her career days as well. Collins finished the night with 23 points, Kaitlyn Pratt scored 16 and had six rebounds and Monique Townson had 14 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Little Rock (15-6, 9-0 Sun Belt) has scored 80 points in back-to-back games for the first time ever as a Division I program. The Trojans last got to 80 in consecutive games in January 1985 when it scored 80 against Rhodes College and 104 against Arkansas Baptist.
The win tied this year’s Trojan team with the 2014-15 squad for the second-best Sun Belt start in program history at 9-0. Only the 2010-11 team had a better start to league play with an 11-0 record before losing.
On Saturday, the Trojans led by as many as 20 points early in the fourth quarter, but the Cajuns cut that advantage down to 10 points with a 10-0 run in a two-minute span. With their lead down to 65-55, Little Rock went on a 15-4 run in the next four minutes to get more distance on Louisiana. The Trojans would eventually lead by as many as 21 before the final buzzer.
Louisiana led for a good chunk of the first half, taking a 7-0 lead early before Little Rock managed to score. But that would be the Cajuns’ largest lead of the game as Little Rock came storming back. The Trojans took a lead with seven minutes left in the first half as Collins and Louisiana’s Jaylyn Gordon battled for offensive supremacy.
By the end of the half, Collins got help from the rest of her teammates in scoring. DeGray put in 8 points in the first half on 4-of-4 shooting, Pratt scored 6 points and Townson added 4 including a buzzer-beater to end the half to go along with Collins’ 18 points. That was enough to give the Trojans a 36-29 lead at the break while.
On the other side of the ball, Gordon had 21 of her team’s points and two just other Cajuns managed to score in the first half. Gordon would go cold in the second half, scoring just 8 to finish with 29.
After ending the first half on a 6-0 run, the Trojans continued their offensive burst to start the third quarter. Little Rock scored 9 of the first 11 points including a 3-pointer by Townson that forced a Cajuns timeout with the Trojans leading 45-31. DeGray continued her dominance inside in the period, making all five of her field goal attempts and two more at the free-throw line to reach 20 points on the night.
The Trojans return home to the Jack Stephens Center next week, beginning the two-game homestand with Appalachian State on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.