UALR women fall in 2nd OT

Sunday, December 30, 2012

— The UALR women’s basketball team battled back from a 13-point second-half deficit to force overtime, but couldn’t hang on to leads in the two extra periods and lost 56-54 to Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday at the Cajun dome in Lafayette, La.

The loss was the Trojans’ first in Sun Belt Conference play this season. It ended their nine-game winning streak and was the first loss to the Ragin’ Cajuns in 10 tries dating to Dec. 28, 2006.

UALR (10-2, 3-1), which last lost Nov. 15 to Missouri State, shot 32 percent from the floor and was 0 of 10 on three-point attempts.

A lengthy drought that spanned most of the second half is what doomed UALR on Saturday.

Morgan Bolton’s layup at the buzzer gave the Trojans a 27-23 halftime lead, but they went more than 13 minutes into the second half before scoring. They missed their first 21 shots from the floor, and by the time Bolton broke the scoring drought with a free throw with 6:54 left in the game, UALR trailed 40-28.

Kiera Clark made UALR’s first shot from the floor with 5:26 left to get within 40-32, then UALR scored nine consecutive points from the free throw line to get within 40-39. Two jumpers by Taylor Gault, who led UALR with 15 points, tied the game at 43-43 to force overtime.

The Trojans took a 46-44 lead on a jumper by Taylor Ford before Keke Veal’s layup gave Louisiana-Lafayette (7-6,1-3) a 47-46 lead with 35 seconds left.

Hannah Fohne then missed the first of two free throws before making the second with 27 seconds left to force a second overtime.

UALR led by as much as 52-49 with 2:08 left and 54-53 with 44 seconds left after Jakeisha Wells’ layup. But Brandi Schambough’s three pointer with 27 seconds left gave the Ragin’ Cajuns the lead again and Gault missed a jumper with four seconds left to seal the loss.

Ashley Benjamin scored with 12 points and had 11 rebounds, Schambough had 10 points and Jasmin Mills scored nine for Louisiana-Lafayette, which lost to Arkansas State 77-53 on Dec. 22 and had lost its three conference games this season by 13 points or more.

SATURDAY’S GAMES

La.-Lafayette 56, UALR 54, 2 OT South Alabama 53, Arkansas State 47 Florida Atlantic 82, La.-Monroe 72 W. Kentucky 82, North Texas 80 Fla. International 66, Northeastern 56 Mississippi State 82, Troy 60

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES All times Central

Fla. International at Fla. A&M, 2 p.m.

La.-Lafayette at Florida Atlantic, 6 p.m.

Troy at North Texas, 7 p.m.

Middle Tenn. at Ark. St., 7:05 p.m.

Sports, Pages 27 on 12/30/2012