JONESBORO, Ark. – Arkansas State jumped out to a 22-10 first-quarter lead and held tight on defense en route to a 66-43 win over ULM on Thursday night in the Convocation Center.
“We simply had too many turnovers and couldn't make shots at the rim,” head coach Jeff Dow said. “Hats off to Arkansas State, which is a very good team that also played well tonight, but we also made too many mistakes.”
Arkansas State (9-3, 3-0 Sun Belt) posted a 13-2 run through the latter half of the first quarter to take an 18-10 lead on the Warhawks.
The ULM defense had one of its best showings of the season in the second quarter, against the Sun Belt's first-place team no less. The Red Wolves committed five turnovers as part of a 5:46 scoreless streak. Aundrea Gamble's layup ended the drought and started a 9-2 run that had the Warhawks trailing 36-16 at halftime.
ULM (6-6, 0-3 SBC) kept fighting in the fourth quarter after Khadija Brown-Haywood's jumper gave the Red Wolves their largest lead of the game at 56-26 early in the period. Daja Chase went nearly coast-to-coast after picking up a loose ball and converted the and-one free-throw. Andreanna Jackson also added a three-pointer on the baseline and Chase and Tieuel added layups. Stephanie Ratliff got ULM to within 58-38 as she tipped one in.
“The one positive I can take away from tonight is that we did not stop competing,” Dow said. “We showed some fight in the fourth quarter with our bench.”
That fourth quarter also saw the Red Wolves get held to 4-of-16 (25 percent) shooting.
ULM makes a short trip on Friday to the middle of the state for a Saturday 4 p.m. contest at Little Rock. Fans can tune into Nick White's call on 1680 AM.
Inside (and beyond) the Box Score
-Arkansas State's second-quarter scoring drought was ULM's longest on defense since a season-best 7:46 outage by LSU-Alexandria (Dec. 19).
-ULM (40-33) fell to 5-3 when out-rebounding its opponent.
-Daja Chase posted 10 rebounds. She came into the game with 8.5 per game, second in the Sun Belt.
-Chase now has four double-digit rebounding performances.
-Alayshia Hunter scored 16 points. She has had 13 or more in all but one game this year and in 10 straight as well.
-Hunter added a pair of swats, giving her eight multi-block contests this year. She came into the game with a Sun Belt-best 2.0 per game.
-Andreanna Jackson posted seven boards after having a career-high eight in her last time out (Dec. 31).
