Spring Break
Arkansas hammers Louisiana-Monroe
Women's Basketball
Derek Oxford
Issue date: 11/17/08 Section: Sports
Spreading the wealth looks like a viable solution to winning games for Arkansas after struggling against NAIA opponent Rogers State last week in an exhibition.
Arkansas' women opened their basketball regular season a day later than their male counterparts, but still came away victorious, dispatching Louisiana-Monroe 77-38 Saturday, in front of 1,460 at Bud Walton Arena.
Freshman guard Ceira Ricketts, playing in her first game as a Razorback, had 14 points and seven rebounds to lead Arkansas.
Five Razorbacks scored in double figures and Arkansas (1-0) shot 44 percent from the field, along with out-rebounding ULM 49-34.
"This is a team that on any given night, any different player can step up and lead us on offense," Arkansas head coach Tom Collen said. "It makes us very hard to guard."
Overall, Collen came away impressed with the effort his team showed in the season opener.
"This was a good win," Collen said. "I was a little nervous before this game because we didn't look very good in the exhibition. We've got a lot of work to do still on offense, but the defense played fantastic today."
The defense was the key to Arkansas winning by such a large margin, holding ULM to 19 points in each half, respectively.
Arkansas notched eight blocks, recorded 14 steals and held the visitors to 23 percent shooting.
The 23 percent shooting by ULM was the lowest by a Razorback opponent since Memphis did so in a loss to the Razorbacks in 2006.
Seniors Ayana Brereton and Whitney Jones also scored in double figures for the Razorbacks. Brereton scored 13 while Jones added 12 points.
Jones said she was more focused on the Razorbacks' defense, though, than on the points she tallied.
"In the exhibition, we didn't go very hard on defense," Jones said. "We talked about trying to keep our opponents under 60 points this year and we came out focused and tried to meet that goal."
ULM turned the ball over 24 times and the 38 points it scored were the lowest in its series with Arkansas.
Arkansas' women opened their basketball regular season a day later than their male counterparts, but still came away victorious, dispatching Louisiana-Monroe 77-38 Saturday, in front of 1,460 at Bud Walton Arena.
Freshman guard Ceira Ricketts, playing in her first game as a Razorback, had 14 points and seven rebounds to lead Arkansas.
Five Razorbacks scored in double figures and Arkansas (1-0) shot 44 percent from the field, along with out-rebounding ULM 49-34.
"This is a team that on any given night, any different player can step up and lead us on offense," Arkansas head coach Tom Collen said. "It makes us very hard to guard."
Overall, Collen came away impressed with the effort his team showed in the season opener.
"This was a good win," Collen said. "I was a little nervous before this game because we didn't look very good in the exhibition. We've got a lot of work to do still on offense, but the defense played fantastic today."
The defense was the key to Arkansas winning by such a large margin, holding ULM to 19 points in each half, respectively.
Arkansas notched eight blocks, recorded 14 steals and held the visitors to 23 percent shooting.
The 23 percent shooting by ULM was the lowest by a Razorback opponent since Memphis did so in a loss to the Razorbacks in 2006.
Seniors Ayana Brereton and Whitney Jones also scored in double figures for the Razorbacks. Brereton scored 13 while Jones added 12 points.
Jones said she was more focused on the Razorbacks' defense, though, than on the points she tallied.
"In the exhibition, we didn't go very hard on defense," Jones said. "We talked about trying to keep our opponents under 60 points this year and we came out focused and tried to meet that goal."
ULM turned the ball over 24 times and the 38 points it scored were the lowest in its series with Arkansas.
Be the first to comment on this story