WOMEN’S BASKETBALL : Doing it with defense
Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas relied again on a disruptive defense to spark a sputtering offense.
The result was a relatively easy, if not eye-pleasing, 63-46 victory over High Point before an announced crowd of 1, 179 on Wednesday night at Walton Arena.
“Well, we’ll take the win,” Arkansas Coach Tom Collen said. “I don’t think it was a very inspiring performance.”
Arkansas (2-0 ) scored 23 points off 24 turnovers in a 39-point rout of Louisiana-Monroe over the weekend, and did much the same against a High Point team coming off a Division I-record 125-point outing against Emory & Henry. Arkansas converted 14 High Point turnovers into 18 points to build a 33-17 halftime lead, then withstood a mild second-half rally by the Panthers (1-2 ).
The Razorbacks, who finished with 29 points off 25 Panthers turnovers, shot just 23 of 68 (33. 8 percent ) from the field, including 7 of 27 (25. 9 percent ) from three-point range. Offense was particularly hard to come by in the opening minutes of both halves for Arkansas, and High Point took advantage and cut its 16-point halftime deficit to 43-33 with 11: 32 to play.
That’s when Arkansas broke out one of its many pressing defenses and promptly went on a decisive 10-2 run.
“We lost energy. We were just out there,” senior forward Whitney Jones said. “We let them score a few times, we turned the ball over a few times, and I think that [press ] gives us a lot of energy.”
Freshman guard Ceira Ricketts scored twice during the spurt, converting a layup off an Ayana Brereton steal and getting another steal and layup 36 seconds later. While Jones led Arkansas with 15 points, Ricketts scored 10 and added 7 rebounds and 5 steals in 18 minutes off the bench.
“I think that Ceira Ricketts stepped up in a big way again and proved that we need her on the floor,” Collen said. “She just creates a lot of problems with her dribble penetration and her steals and her ability to rebound and push the ball up the floor, so we may see a few more minutes out of her.”
Arkansas also got 9 points, 4 steals and 4 assists from freshman guard Lyndsay Harris, while Brereton scored just 2 points but finished with a game-high 11 rebounds, a career-high 6 assists and 5 steals.
High Point got 11 points and 10 rebounds from reserve forward Shamia Brown and 11 points from forward Mackenzie Maier.
High Point handled Arkansas’ pressing and trapping in the early going but eventually wore down in the first half. The Panthers also broke down several times in the second half, particularly during the 10-2 run.
“They just keep coming after you,” High Point Coach Tooey Loy said. “Their pressure was the difference in the game, but we knew that coming in.
“ It’s just tough coming from our conference to duplicate the kind of speed you’re going to face.”
High Point, which plays in the Big South Conference, didn’t get closer than 15 points in the final 9: 00.
Arkansas hosts SMU on Friday and Northwestern on Sunday, and Collen said he’s hopeful the Razorbacks can generate a more consistent offense instead of relying almost exclusively on its defense.
“It’s a hard thing to do three games in five days,” Collen said.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
