Lady Trojans Return Home to Battle Florida Atlantic on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Courtesy University of Arkansas at Little Rock Athletics Department

The Opening Tip

The Trojans begin a stretch where it plays three of the next four games at home when UALR (11-7, 4-6 Sun Belt) welcomes Florida Atlantic to the Jack Stephens Center Wednesday (Jan. 23) at 7 p.m.

Unable to attend? There are multiple ways you can follow all the action. If you want to listen to audio, you can hear Phil Elson (Play-by-Play) and Ron Jumper (Color) either on terrestrial radio at 920 AM or via the world wide web by clicking here. For subscription video, you can watch on UALR’s athletic web site by clicking here. Finally, live stats can be found here.

Quick Hits

UALR (11-7, 4-6) is looking for its first win home win in 2013 when the Trojans host Florida Atlantic (10-7, 7-2) on Wednesday (Jan. 23).

Something has to give as UALR is on a three-game home losing streak while the Owls have lost their last two road games.

Florida Atlantic is one of two Sun Belt Conference schools who have never beaten the Trojans. UALR is 7-0 against FAU and 10-0 against Troy.

Freshman Shanity James led the team the past two games in scoring with 18 against Middle Tennessee Jan. 16 and 15 at WKU Jan. 19.

The Owl’s seven SBC wins have come against teams with a combined conference record of 18-44. They have beaten SBC West co-leaders North Texas and Arkansas State.

Scouting Florida Atlantic

Florida Atlantic enters Wednesday’s contest with a 10-7 overall record, but currently sits third in the highly competitive Sun Belt East Division with a 7-2 conference mark. However, it should be noted FAU’s seven SBC wins have come against teams with a combined record of 18-44.

In their last game, FAU ended North Texas’ five-game winning streak with a 79-67 victory Saturday (Jan. 19). After losing by as much as 13, the Mean Green actually cut the deficit to six with 2:36 left. The Owls’ Breana Turner ended the game with a trio of jumpers for the final margin.

Individually, Chenise Miller led the way for the Owls with 22 points and 14 rebounds. Turner came off the bench for 17 points in 17 minutes. Kimberly Smith narrowly missed the double-double with 10 rebounds and nine points.

Florida Atlantic is a high-scoring offense as it is 20th in the nation with 73.1 points per game. The Trojans also need to watch their back pocket as the Owls are ninth and 12th in the nation in turnover margin (+7.0) and steals (12.6) per game.

Flashback to Last Year 

The Trojans used an 11-0 run in the second half en route to a 59-42 win over Florida Atlantic March 5 in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. 

UALR only held a 38.1-34.1 shooting percentage advantage from the field, but the Trojans flexed their muscles with a 43-25 edge on the boards. FAU only managed five more total rebounds (25) than UALR had in offensive boards (20).

Taylor Gault scored a game-high 19 points while Taylor Ford stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, six boards and five assists with only one turnover.

Florida Atlantic does return three starters from that team, but those players only combined for 15 of FAU’s 42 points. Chenise Miller had seven points and a team-high five boards.

Free Throw Turnaround 

UALR has gone through a resurgence from the charity stripe since the start of the new year. 

In the first 12 games of 2012-13, UALR was shooting 56.4 percent (132-234) from the line. Thus far in 2013, UALR has made 67.5 percent (77-114), including 75.9 percent (44-58) in its last four games.

The highest mark from the charity stripe for the Trojans came on Jan. 12 against FIU. They went 15-18 from the line, including sophomore Taylor Gault’s 7-7 mark for the game. Late in the game, there was a stretch where she made five free throws on a single trip to the charity stripe.

Having a Block Party

If last season was any indication, opposing players may want to think twice before entering the lane.

UALR recorded the most blocks for a single season (114) in school history in 2011-12. It was the second time in coach Joe Foley’s nine seasons a UALR squad hit the century mark (100 in the 2006-07 season). This season, UALR already has 98 blocks in 17 games, which easily leads the Sun Belt Conference.

The Trojans are 14-3 when they record seven or more blocks a game under coach Foley.

So far in 2012-13, UALR has 5.9 blocks per game. With a minimum of 30 games remaining, The Trojans are on pace to smash the single-season record and finish with 177 blocks. With 106 rejections this season thus far, UALR is eight blocks short of matching last season’s total through only 18 games.

Trojans Rewind: Western Kentucky

The Trojans cut the deficit to five in the second half and had the chance to pare it even further, but the Hilltoppers came up with the stop and scored six unanswered as UALR fell to Western Kentucky Jan. 19 in Bowling Green, Ky.

The Trojans won the battle of the boards 39-26, bench points 23-4 and second chance points 13-6, but Western Kentucky was able to score 24 points off of 24 UALR turnovers.

UALR was led by sophomore Shanity James’ 15 points, all in the first half. Sophomore Kiera Clark added 11 points.

Freshman Jakeisha Wells came off the bench for 10 points on 3-3 shooting from the field and a 4-4 mark from the charity stripe. She also had game-high in rebounds (seven) and blocks (three).

Next Up:

UALR takes to the road Saturday (Jan. 26) when it travels to Denton, Texas for a showdown with the SBC West-leading North Texas Mean Green. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m.