LAS VEGAS — Arkansas’ women’s team made a late push Saturday against DePaul, but it wasn’t enough as the Blue Demons held off the Razorbacks 46-45 in the opening round of the Duel in the Desert.
Arkansas (6-4) struggled offensively for most of the game, shooting just 29 percent from the floor. The Razorbacks went nearly nine minutes without scoring in the first half, and they had two three-minute scoring droughts in the second half.
Still, Arkansas had a chance to pull out a victory in the final minute.
The Razorbacks trailed by six points with 2:26 remaining following a couple of free throws by DePaul (8-3). The teams traded turnovers and timeouts before DePaul went to the line with 23 seconds left for a 1-and-1 opportunity.
The Blue Demons made the first free throw to take a 46-39 lead, but they missed the second free throw and Arkansas’ Quistelle Williams grabbed the rebound. Williams got the ball to Lyndsay Harris, who made a three-pointer to pull Arkansas within 46-42.
Arkansas fouled DePaul quickly on its next possession, sending the Blue Demons back to the line for another 1-and-1 opportunity. DePaul failed to make the first free throw this time, and Arkansas senior Charity Ford grabbed the rebound and launched a pass the length of the floor to Harris.
Harris banked in another three-pointer to pull the Razorbacks within 46-45 with one second remaining to set the final score.
“I was proud of our kids today,” Arkansas Coach Tom Collen said. “They played good defense for 40 minutes and exhausted themselves.
“They played against one of the better teams in the country and did a pretty good job. We just couldn’t score with the basketball.”
Maureen Mulchrone came off the bench to lead DePaul with a career-high 11 points and four rebounds, and Sam Quigley added nine points.
Harris led all scorers with 23 points and C’eira Ricketts had eight, but no other Razorback scored more than four points.
It looked like Arkansas would get off to a hot start as Harris opened the scoring with a three-pointer, but the Razorbacks went nearly nine minutes before scoring again and found themselves trailing by as many as 11 with time running out in the half.
Arkansas turned up its defensive pressure and mounted a comeback behind Harris, who hit a layup, back-to-back threes and three free throws to give the Razorbacks a 22-19 lead.
DePaul then scored the final five points of the half to take a 24-22 lead into the break.
Harris finished the first half with 14 points and two rebounds, but she was the only Razorback to score more than two points in the half.
“[Lyndsay] can be a scoring machine, but we have to have more people step up and shoot the basketball,” Collen said. “We have to get the ball inside more. They were pretty big, but we didn’t pound the ball down inside.
“We have to find somebody who can score on the low block. When we threw it in there today, we didn’t score.”
The Razorbacks face Texas-San Antonio at 2 p.m. Central today.
SEC women standings CONF. ALL Georgia............................ 0-0 9-0 Kentucky.......................... 0-0 8-0 LSU.................................. 0-0 7-0 Vanderbilt........................ 0-0 9-1 Tennessee........................ 0-0 8-1 Mississippi State............. 0-0 8-3 Mississippi ...................... 0-0 7-3 Arkansas .................. 0-0 6-4 Auburn ............................ 0-0 6-3 South Carolina ................ 0-0 4-3 Alabama .......................... 0-0 6-5 Florida.............................. 0-0 4-5 WEDNESDAY’S GAMES Miss. State 88, Miss. Valley State 53 Florida A&M 61, Alabama 52 Tennessee 86, Louisville 56 Texas 64, Mississippi 58 LSU 75, North Carolina A&T 33 THURSDAY’S GAMES Northwestern 67, Arkansas 55 Wake Forest at South Carolina, 6 p.m.
FRIDAY’S GAME Mississippi 73, Memphis 72 SATURDAY’S GAMES Stanford 67, Tennessee 52 DePaul 46, Arkansas 45 TODAY’S GAMES All times Central Louisville at Kentucky, noon Mississippi State at Xavier, 1 p.m.
Winston-Salem at Mississippi, 1 p.m.
Southern at Florida, 1 p.m.
LSU at Nebraska, 1 p.m.
Virginia at Georgia, 1:30 p.m.
Tennessee State at Vanderbilt, 2 p.m.
North Carolina at South Carolina, 2 p.m.
Auburn at South Alabama, 2 p.m.
Sports, Pages 25 on 12/20/2009