Taylor Gault’s threepoint shooting upstaged one of the country’s best scorers Wednesday.
Even if UALR’s sophomore guard wasn’t trying to do that.
Gault made a careerhigh five three-pointers and scored 25 of her teamhigh 31 points - two off a career high - in the first half to help UALR to a 79-47 blowout of Oral Roberts at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
“I was just doing what I know how to do,” Gault said.“I hate losing, my teammates hate losing. We just do what we’ve got to do to win.”
The bulk of Gault’s points came while teammate Taylor Ford was holding Kevi Luper to 12 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
Luper, a senior guard who has been named All-Summit League three times, was averaging 21 points a game before Wednesday and her 2,277 career points coming into the season were more than any active Division I player other than Baylor All-American Brittney Griner.
But, with Ford tracking her, she was held to eight first-half points on 4-of-9 shooting while UALR went on several lengthy runs two days after being held to 47 points in a victory at Southern Methodist.
Four times UALR went on runs of 9-0 or more in the first half, the last of which came over the final 2:47 of the first half that gave the Trojans (3-1) a 51-18 lead going into halftime.
They shot 56 percent (19 of 34) from the field in the first half, making 6 of 9 three-pointers, while holding a 21-14 rebounding edge and forcing 13 turnovers.
Coach Joe Foley was pleased with the best first half his team has played this season. Not so much because of what he saw, but because he saw from a still growing team.
“I’m just trying to get them experience and teaching them the difference in the things that they’re doing well and the things that they’re not doing well,” he said.
That was pretty much everything Wednesday night - especially defense.
Oral Roberts (2-2) wascoming off an 80-57 loss to Arkansas on Monday but was averaging almost 65 points per game and making almost 43 percent of its shots. But neither Luper nor forward Bernadett Balla, who averaged 14 points per game before Wednesday, reached their season averages for points.
Balla, a senior forward, was held to 2 points on 1-of-7 shooting with 3 rebounds.
Still, the best defensive job was on Luper, who was held to 10 points in Monday’s loss to Arkansas but scored 32 against Texas-Arlington and 23 against Tulsa.
Sports, Pages 28 on 11/22/2012