UALR Goes Pink as Women’s Basketball Hosts Louisiana Tech Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Courtesy University of Arkansas at Little Rock Athletics Department

The Opening Tip

The Trojans take a break from Sun Belt Conference play when UALR (13-7) hosts the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (9-10) Wednesday (Jan. 30) at 7 p.m. It will be the annual “Think Pink” basketball game in support of the Kay Yow Fund for breast cancer research.

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 (13-7) steps out of conference play as it hosts Louisiana Tech Wednesday night (Jan. 30) for its annual “Think Pink” game.

January 30 marks the third-latest non-conference game in program history (Morris Brown 2/3/01 and 2/10/03).

With a team-high 13 points, Saturday marked the first time in her career that junior Hannah Fohne led UALR in scoring for a game.

UALR’s 52-48 win over North Texas Saturday (Jan. 26) marked the first time this season the Trojans won when trailing with five minutes remaining in the ballgame.

Louisiana Tech was a member of the Sun Belt from 1991-2001.

The Lady Techsters lead the all-time series 7-2 but are 0-2 in games played at the Jack Stephens Center.

Get Your Pink On

The UALR women’s basketball team invites all Trojan fans to the 2013 annual “Think Pink” basketball game, sponsored by QBot, on Wednesday, Jan. 30 as the Trojans take on Louisiana Tech. Tip-off at the Jack Stephens Center between these 2012 NCAA participants is set for 7 p.m. 

The UALR basketball team will be wearing pink socks and laces as well as pink t-shirts during warm-ups. During the starting line-ups and at halftime, we will be honoring breast cancer survivors who are in attendance. 

Breast cancer survivors receive free admission to the game. Commemorative t-shirts will also be sold for $10 with proceeds benefiting the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. For one lucky student in attendance, QBot has graciously donated an i Pad mini.

Fans in attendance will be able to purchase raffle tickets with proceeds going to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. Prizes include a pink Nikon camera, a pink backpack stuffed with UALR gear and a pink basketball autographed by the entire UALR women’s basketball team. Tickets will be $5 apiece or five for $20.

UALR would like to thank the following sponsors for supporting this great event: QBot, Oxford Screen Printing, Arrow Coach Lines, Dennis and Karen Ferra, Gwen and Bill Dunkum, George Prange, Jane and Robert Wayland, Leslie and Gary Collins and Riverside Box Company.

Tickets are available by calling 565-UALR or visiting www.ualrtrojans.com. Come join us for an exciting pink evening of breast cancer awareness and basketball!

Scouting Louisiana Tech

Two programs that are well-known nationally will square off Wednesday (Jan. 30) when UALR faces Louisiana Tech (9-10). Both teams have combined for five NCAA tournament appearances in the past three seasons. La Tech and UALR have each beaten Oral Roberts at home this season. UALR claimed a 79-47 win on Nov. 21, 2012 while the Lady Techsters knocked off ORU 61-59 on Dec. 14. 

In its last contest, Louisiana Tech fell in a crucial Western Athletic Conference game at home in overtime, 76-75, to Utah State. Brittany Lewis led the Lady Techsters with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Whitney Frazier and Lulu Perry added 16 while Kelia Shelton came off the bench for 15 points.

Three different La Tech players average double-digit scoring on the year. Shelton leads the way with 12.8 points per game while Lewis adds 11.6 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game.

The Lady Techsters are one of the most inexperienced teams in the country as only six players have seen previous action with the Lady Techsters. Four of those players are only sophomores.

Flashback to Last Year

UALR took an early 19-12 lead thanks to back-to-back threes, but Louisiana Tech rallied to take a 26-21 halftime lead and a 64-48 win Nov. 22, 2011 in Ruston, La.

While Louisiana Tech only won the rebounding battle 46-41, the Lady Techsters had a sizeable advantage in second-chance points. UALR surrendered 16 points off of 20 La Tech offensive boards. UALR managed five points on 14 offensive boards.

Janette Merriex led all returners from that contest with 15 points on 6-13 shooting, including a 3-6 mark from beyond the arc. 

Louisiana Tech only returns one starter and 13 points from last year’s contest. Whitney Frazier only managed four points but did grab seven boards.

The Oddity Known as North Texas

To say it was an odd end to the North Texas-UALR series as Sun Belt Conference-foes would be quite the understatement.

When the two teams met up Jan. 9 in Little Rock, UALR faced its largest halftime deficit of the season in trailing by 14, 31-17. UALR rallied and even took a 55-50 lead with 5:10 left in the ballgame. North Texas rallied to win 68-65, the only time this season UALR lost when leading with five minutes remaining in a game in 2012-13.

Conversely when the two teams met in Denton less than three weeks later, North Texas held a slim 43-42 lead with five minutes left. Trailing 48-45 with three minutes remaining, UALR scored the next seven points for the 52-48 win. It is the only win this season for UALR when trailing with five minutes left.

UALR finished 12-11 against North Texas as conference foes. The Trojans trailed 7-6 in games played in Little Rock but went 6-3 in Denton.

People Know Him, He’s Kind Of A Big Deal 

Head coach Joe Foley has quite the resume at both Arkansas Tech before he took over the reins of the UALR program for the 2003-04 season.

In 16 years with Arkansas Tech, he compiled a 456-81 record (28.5 wins per season). Coupled with the 186-112 mark at UALR, he is 642-193.

Entering the 2012-13 season, Foley is one of only 41 head coaches who have won more than 600 games in women’s college basketball. His 629 wins are ranked 15th in all-time victories among active coaches and 28th among all coaches. His .772 winning percentage is 26th among active coaches and 30th all-time.

Last Time Out: North Texas 

UALR’s only loss on the season when leading with five minutes remaining in the game was against North Texas Jan. 9. So it stands to reason UALR’s only win when trailing with five minutes left was at North Texas Saturday (Jan. 26). 

The Trojans rallied from a nine-point deficit and scored the final seven points of the game as UALR knocked off North Texas, 52-48. 

UALR junior Hannah Fohne matched a career-best with 13 points on 6-10 shooting from the field. Classmate Taylor Ford recorded the only UALR triple of the game to tie the score at 48 with 2:35 remaining in the game. She also hit a jumper to give the Trojans the lead for good with 1:41 left in the game.

Sophomore Taylor Gault iced the game with a fastbreak lay-up with less than a second left.

 Next Up:

UALR battles South Alabama in the final Sun Belt Conference East Division game in Little Rock on Saturday (Feb. 2). Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. The Trojans defeated the Jaguars 49-40 Dec. 22, 2012 in Mobile, Ala.