LITTLE ROCK — The UALR women’s basketball team extended its winning streak to eight games Thursday night, but not until the Trojans survived a late flurry by Florida International and the leading scorer in women’s college basketball.
Jerica Coley scored 14 of her game-high 28 points in the game’s final 2:32 to help Florida International get within three points, but the Golden Panthers never had the ball with a chance to tie the game again as UALR escaped U.S. Century Bank Arena in Miami with a 51-47 victory.
It was UALR’s eighth consecutive victory and forced a tie with Arkansas State atop the Sun Belt Conference West Division with three games left.
UALR (19-7, 11-6) will attempt to reach 20 victories for a seventh consecutive season when it plays at Florida Atlantic on Saturday. It will play home games against Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State to finish the regular season.
Taylor Ford led UALR with a career-high 20 points, the fifth time in the past eight games she has scored at least 16. She made 8 of 12 shots from the floor, 4 of 7 free throws and had 10 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.
Taylor Gault came off the bench to score 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting in 18 minutes. It followed a pair of games in which UALR’s leading scorer combined for three points in 19 total minutes.
Coley, the leading scorer in NCAA Division I at 25.9 points per game before Thursday, was held to 14 points through 1 the game’s first 37 /2 minutes. She made 5 of 9 shots over a span of 1:01 as Florida International (17-10, 11-7) went from trailing 46-33 to pull within 48-45 on a three-pointer with 32 seconds left.
Sun Belt men
THURSDAY’S GAMES
Fla. International 65, UALR 52 North Texas 64, Florida Atlantic 57, OT La.-Lafayette 76, Troy 66 W. Kentucky 75, La.-Monroe 57 Middle Tennessee 85, So. Alabama 50
Sun Belt women
THURSDAY’S GAME
UALR 51, Fla. International 47
SATURDAY’S GAMES All times Central
UALR at Florida Atlantic, 2 p.m.
La.-Monroe at Middle Tenn., 3 p.m.
Troy at Arkansas State, 3:05 p.m.
W. Kentucky at La.-Lafayette, 5 p.m.
North Texas at So. Alabama, 5:05 p.m.
Sports, Pages 21 on 02/22/2013