by By Wes Johnson
TROY, Alabama – The Troy women’s basketball team couldn’t find an answer for Sharde’ Collins and the Sun Belt Conference regular season champions as Little Rock left Trojan Arena with a 74-63 victory on Saturday.
Collins had a game-high 27 points and Little Rock held Troy (19-10, 12-6 Sun Belt) to its second-lowest offensive output of the season. Neither team was clicking as a whole offensively in the first half as Little Rock (23-7, 17-1) went into the locker room leading 28-22. The third quarter was the tale of the tape as Little Rock went 11-for-18 from the floor and outscored the home-standing Trojans 25-10 in the period.
Troy’s offense kicked into gear in the fourth quarter making 12-of-21 shots (57.1 percent) to pull within nine at one points, but couldn’t get any closer as Little Rock converted 13-of-18 free throws to put the game to rest.
Claresa Banks and ArJae’ Saunders scored 13 points each in the contest for Troy, while Caitlyn Ramirez (Seminole Nation) hauled in a game-high 14 rebounds.
Troy will enter next week’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face the winner of the No. 6 Georgia Southern-No. 11 Arkansas State game on Thursday, March 9 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, La.
QUOTABLE
“We continue to learn and continue to get better,” Troy head coach Chanda Rigby said. “We had a good defensive performance overall. They had one player go off on us (Sharde’ Collins) and she’s a great player, she hit nearly every shot. We’re going to choose not to focus on this loss, but focus on how we outplayed them in the fourth quarter and take that into the tournament.”
UP NEXT
Troy will play in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Thursday, March 9. Game time and opponent will be announced later.
NOTABLE
• Caitlyn Ramirez posted 14 rebounds in the game, the 12th time this season she has posted double-digit rebounds.
• Kristen Emerson played just five minutes in the game, but came up with two blocks. The senior now has 107 in her career which is seventh-most in program history.
• Troy forced 22 turnovers in the game, the 83rd time the Trojans have forced 20-plus turnovers in a game under head coach Chanda Rigby.
• The Trojans’ bench outscored Little Rock’s bench 23-8.
• Troy entered the game leading the nation with 19 offensive rebounds per game, but were held to a season-low 10 on Saturday.
