Consistent scoring didn’t follow the UALR women’s basketball team on the road Wednesday night.
UALR missed its first four shots and never held a lead after falling behind by 15 points less than 10 minutes into a 65-39 loss to Western Kentucky at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Ky.
It was the fourth time in eight road games UALR has failed to score 40 points away from Little Rock, but this one occurred after the Trojans had appeared to solve their shooting problems. UALR had averaged almost 65 points over its past three games, all victories, one of which came at Texas-Arlington.
But Western Kentucky (11-4, 3-1 Sun Belt Conference) didn’t allow the Trojans to score their 10th point until 5:13 was left in the first half, led 29-15 at halftime and held the Trojans to 28.3 percent shooting for the game.
Shanity James led UALR with 14 points, the highest total for the sophomore forward since a Nov. 22 victory over Memphis, but nobody else had more than Kiera Clark’s eight points.
Starting guards Taylor Ford, Taylor Gault and Sharde’ Collins were held to a combined eight points and were a combined 3-for-22 from the floor.
Gault entered Wednesday having scored a combined 70 points during UALR’s three game winning streak but was held to five points on 2-of-11shooting.
Western Kentucky made five three-pointers in the game’s first 9:44 to take a 21-6 lead and made 8 of 13 three-pointers for the game. Chaney Means came off the bench to make 3 of 3 three-pointers and finished with 11 points, while all five Western Kentucky starters had at least one three-pointer.
Chastity Gooch led the Hilltoppers with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Micah Jones scored nine of her 14 points from the free throw line.
In other Sun Belt women’s games, Brooklyn Arceneaux scored 19 points to lead Louisiana-Lafayette (10-5, 3-1) past South Alabama (4-11, 2-3) 65-60 in Mobile, Ala. ... Meghan Braeuer scored 16 points, all in the second half, as Texas State (6-10, 3-2) beat Texas-Arlington (1-15, 0-5) 68-60 in San Marcos, Texas.
TUESDAY’S GAMES Georgia State 76, Arkansas State 74
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES W. Kentucky 65, UALR 39 Texas State 68, Texas-Arlington 60 La.-Lafayette 65, South Alabama 60
TODAY’S GAME All times Central La.-Monroe at Troy, 5:15 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES UALR at Georgia State, noon Arkansas St. at W. Kentucky, 4:30 p.m. La.-Monroe at South Alabama, 5 p.m.
La.-Lafayette at Troy, 5:15 p.m.
Sports, Pages 22 on 01/16/2014