HOT SPRINGS — The UALR women halted New Orleans’ feel-good run in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Th e Trojans jumped on New Orleans early and cruised to a 73-43 victory in Monday’s first semifinal at Summit Arena.
UALR (26-5), which won its 21st consecutive game, will play Middle Tennessee (24-5) at 1 p.m. today for the championship. The winner will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The loss ended the season for New Orleans (12-20). It’s also the school’s final basketball appearance in the Sun Belt Conference. New Orleans is leaving the Sun Belt this summer and will attempt to drop to NCAA Division III.
“I thought we started the game out really well,” UALR women’s Coach Joe Foley said. “We wanted to pressure New Orleans to see if the fatigue factor would kick in. I thought we did a good job on defense, getting in the passing lanes, getting some easy baskets, and broke the game open.”
It was UALR’s school-record 26th victory. It also kept the nation’s third-longest winning streak alive and kept UALR among the nine teams in the nation that has not lost a game in the 2010 calendar year.
New Orleans, the 12th seed, upset fifth-seeded Florida Atlantic and fourth-seeded Denver to reach the semifinals.
“They didn’t really have anything to lose, and they were playing on emotion,” said UALR junior forward Chastity Reed, who is from New Orleans. “They know it’s their last game.”
Reed scored a Sun Belt Conference record 41 points to lead the Trojans. She broke the record of 40 set by Middle Tennessee’s Alysha Clark on Sunday. Clark then broke Reed’s record by scoring 44 points in Middle Tennessee’s semifinal victory over Western Kentucky.
Reed also had 11 rebounds.
Senior guard Kim Sitzmann added 11 points, while point guard Asriel Rolfe finished with 9 points and 8 assists without a turnover.
Junior guard Shanika Butler had 6 points and 6 assists and was credited with 2 steals. She actually forced several more turnovers.
“Nik’s been great for us on defense all year,” Sitzmann said.
UALR shot 46 percent from both the field and threepoint line. The Trojans helda 41-37 rebounding advantage and forced 17 New Orleans turnovers. That led to an 18-6 advantage in points off turnovers.
UALR forced New Orleans Coach Amy Champion to call her third timeout of the first half after an 11-1 run pushed the lead to 27-10. Reed scored the final five points of the half as the Trojans led 34-11.
UALR increased its lead to 56-21 with 11:56 left on a basket by Butler. Reed reached 41 points with a jump shot with 3:39 remaining. At the final media timeout, Foley took out the rest of his starters.
Sports, Pages 15 on 03/09/2010