Taylor Ford looked up with time winding down Wednesday night at the Jack Stephens Center, saw the seconds ticking off the shot clock and put up a three-pointer from the top of the key.
The senior guard’s shot fell cleanly through the net, giving the UALR women’s basketball team a bit of breathing room with less than a minute left in the game. Then, a few seconds later, Taylor Gault made a steal that led to two free throws that finally put away Texas State 77-70 in a game that came close to getting away from UALR after it nearly blew an 18-point lead in the second half.
“I’ve been working on my shot since I’ve been struggling a little bit, so I had a little bit of confidence,” Ford said of her three-pointer that gave UALR a 73-68 lead with 33 seconds left.
Gault’s free throws made it 75-68, and the short sequence allowed the Trojans to exhale after a 12-minute stretch in which Texas State’s pressure defense forced them into turnovers that led to easy baskets and trips to the free throw line.
“We just didn’t handle it real well,” UALR Coach Joe Foley said. “They’ve got to get aggressive because they’re down, and our kids didn’t realize the intensity they’ve got to play with. If we break it and hit a couple of layups, then that breaks their back.”
The Trojans (9-8, 4-3 Sun Belt Conference) weren’t able to do that until Ford’s late three.
Before Texas State outscored UALR 33-22 over the final 12 minutes, the Trojans looked to be running away with their seventh home victory in eight games after a layup by Gault capped a 12-0 run that gave them their biggest lead at 55-37 with 12:32 left.
That was just about the time Texas State (6-11, 3-3), which beat UALR 42-35 on Jan. 2 in San Marcos, Texas, started pressing every time UALR took the ball out. It helped create a steal by Kaylan Martin at midcourt that led to an easy basket that stopped UALR’s run, then Martin made two free throws to make it 55-41.
That started an 11-2 run to draw Texas State to within 57-49 with 7:31 left as three UALR turnovers in the stretch led to easy points for the Bobcats.
In all, UALR committed nine of its 17 turnovers in the final 12 minutes, which led to 14 points for Texas State.
On one possession Kiera Clark ran the baseline while trying to inbound the ball, which led to a turnover, and Kaitlin Walla responded with a three-pointer that made it 68-64 with 2:27 left.Then Gault was called for a five-second violation while trying to inbound the ball, and Ayriel Anderson’s two free throws pulled Texas State to within 70-68 with 59 seconds left.
“I made a couple of mistakes,” said Clark, who finished with 16 points. “I ran when I wasn’t supposed to, and I threw the ball out a couple of times. We’ve just got to handle it better when we come to practice and work on it a little bit more.”
Until Texas State started pressing, the game looked like most of UALR’s home games with a free-flowing offense consistently leading to jump shots from Gault and Clark.
Gault finished with 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting, the fifth time in the past six games she has scored at least 20. Ford and Shanity James scored 11 points each, and the Trojans shot 57.7 percent from the floor.
A 10-2 run in the first half gave UALR a 35-24 lead, then Gault’s runner with 3:26 left made it 37-29 as the Trojans eclipsed their points total from their previous game against Texas State in less than 17 minutes.
“We’re getting good shots,” Foley said. “If we can start scoring a bit inside and we get more balanced, then we can be a pretty decent offensive team.
“It’s taken awhile to get there, but hopefully we’re starting to get there.”
Sun Belt standings
CONF. ALL
Arkansas State ...........5-1 11-7
Western Kentucky ...........4-2 12-5
Georgia State...................3-2 7-10
Louisiana-Lafayette .........3-2 10-6
UALR.......................4-3 9-8
Louisiana-Monroe...........3-3 7-11
Texas State ......................3-3 6-11
South Alabama ................3-3 5-11
Troy .................................2-5 6-12
Texas-Arlington ...............0-6 1-16
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES UALR 77, Texas State 70 Western Kentucky 77, La.-Monroe 73 Troy 85, Texas-Arlington 62
TODAY’S GAME All times Central Georgia State at La.-Lafayette, 5 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES Georgia State at La.-Monroe, 2 p.m.
W. Kentucky at La.-Lafayette, 2 p.m.
Troy at Texas State, 2 p.m.
UALR at Arkansas State, 3:05 p.m.
S. Alabama at Texas-Arlington, 5 p.m.
Sports, Pages 19 on 01/23/2014