LITTLE ROCK — The UALR women’s basketball team entered Wednesday night mired in the worst seven-game stretch since Coach Joe Foley’s teams started rattling off 20-victory seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances three seasons ago.
For a 13-minute stretch in the first half, though, the Trojans looked every bit the teams of recent past.
UALR, which had lost 6 of 7 games and had not won at home in more than a month, outscored Florida Atlantic 26-6 during a stretch in the first half and at one point was plus-20 in rebounding during a 77-45 victory at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
The victory was the Trojans’ first since beating Troy on Jan. 5, ending a skid of four consecutive losses. It was their first home victory since beating Tulsa on Dec. 18, and it came against a Florida Atlantic team that was off to its best Sun Belt Conference start since it joined the league in 2005.
“That’s how much a mental game this is,” Foley said. “You take a team like Florida Atlantic, one of the top teams in the league, and we made them look bad. ... That’s what comes along with youth sometimes. But at least we showed that we can play.”
UALR’s most-lopsided victory of the season got that way with an 8-0 run that turned a 13-13 tie into a 21-13 lead for UALR (12-7, 5-6) in the first half. The margin grew as the Trojans rebounded better than they had all season.
UALR entered averaging 40.4 rebounds per game, but had 30 at halftime Wednesday, including 10 on the offensive end. The Trojans scored 14 second-chance points and finished with a 56-24 rebounding advantage. Led by Shanity James’ 13 and Taylor Ford’s nine, all eight UALR players had at least four rebounds.
That helped the Trojans stretch their run to 12-0 and after Florida Atlantic’s Breana Turner made a three-pointer to make it 25-16, UALR scored nine consecutive points, seven coming from Taylor Gault, to make it 34-16. The Trojans led 47-21 at halftime.
It was a season-high first half point total for the Trojans. Most of UALR’s scoring took place near the basket, with 20 points coming in the lane on 16-of-31 shooting. UALR attempted just 3 three-pointers, making one before halftime.
James, UALR’s freshman forward who scored a combined 33 points in the past two games, scored four consecutive points to start the second half and pushed UALR’s lead to 51-21. The Trojans led by 30points or more the last 18:51 of the game and twice led by 36 points.
Gault finished with 17 points off the bench, nine coming in a three-minute stretch of the first half.
Taylor Ford added 16 points and five assists, Kiera Clark scored 14 and James had 11 points to go along with her 13 rebounds.
Florida Atlantic’s Chenise Miller entered Wednesday night averaging 16.6 points in Sun Belt games and had 22 points and 14 rebounds in a Saturday victory over West Division-leading North Texas. But she was held to zero points on 0-for-2 shooting in the first half and finished with 7 points and 8 rebounds.
“We’re starting to understand how important defense is,” Foley said.
Kimberly Smith led Florida Atlantic (10-8, 7-3) with 10 points Wednesday night.
It was an all-around performance that Foley said he hopes can turn the psyche of a young team that still has a chance to get back in a West Division race.
“It makes you feel like, ‘All right, we’re not as bad as we thought we were,’ ” Foley said. “Somewhere in between is where we really are. We just need to improve. Our league, it’s all about that week in March.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
UALR 77, Florida Atlantic 45 Fla. International 64, La.-Lafayette 63, OT South Alabama 56, W. Kentucky 46
TODAY’S GAMES All times Central
Middle Tennessee at North Texas, 5 p.m.
Arkansas State at Troy, 5:15 p.m.
Sports, Pages 23 on 01/24/2013