Dec. 10, 2011

MemphisvsUALRBox

Box Score

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - - The University of Memphis women's basketball team (8-1) weathered an extremely physical contest in an 81-66 win at Arkansas-Little Rock (3-6) Saturday. The win is the Tigers' sixth straight victory and is the team's first road victory of the season.

Memphis led by as many as 16 in the first half before UALR took advantage of a Tiger line-up that was without Brittany Carter and Ramses Lonlack, both who had first half foul trouble. A three-quarters court three at the buzzer gave the Trojans even more momentum and the young squad came out in the second half on an 8-2 run to cut the Memphis lead to 40-37 with 16:28 to play. Memphis was called for four fouls in the first four minutes of the second half, and could not get leading scorer Brittany Carter any looks at the basket.

The Tigers looked to their post players to fend off the suddenly aggressive Trojan squad. Jasmine Lee and Nicole Dickson responded with crowd-quieting buckets before Brittany Carter knocked down a pair of layups to get in the scoring column, putting Memphis up 49-39 with 14:01 to go. But a Lonlack layup caused UALR to call timeout to adjust to Carter's presence in the scoring column, and Memphis then struggled to convert on good looks down low, missing layups and offensive putbacks. UALR guard Taylor Gault did everything she could to get her team going, driving right at Tiger defenders and drawing fouls. Gault, who finished with a team-high 22 points, scored six straight to open the half, and inspired her teammates to again trim a double-digit lead down, this time to just one at 59-58 with 7:07 to play.

But Carter and the Tigers took over from there, going on a 9-0 run with three buckets from Carter in two and a half minutes. A Carter three with 3:16 to go pushed the Tigers up in front at 73-59 and took the air out of the Trojans' sails.

Nicole Dickson led Memphis with 22 points, while Jasmine Lee added a double-double of 17 points and 16 rebounds. Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir added a season-high 13 points with four assists, five rebounds and three steals and Carter finished with 15 points, all in the second half.

Memphis will have final exams this week and once finals are complete, the team will fly to New York to participate in the two-day St. John's tournament. Memphis will face Louisiana Tech, another 2011 NCAA tournament team, on Friday, then will face either host St. John's or Prairie View A&M on Saturday, depending on the first day's results. The Tigers will not have another home game until December 30th when they host Big East foe Seton Hall.

-www.gotigersgo.com-