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Willits boosts Arkansas past TulsaROB KEYSARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE FAYETTEVILLE -- Wendi Willits entered Friday night's game against Tulsa needing 12 three-pointers to become the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks' all-time leader. Now she needs five. Willits made seven three-pointers and scored a game-high 25 points as Arkansas stormed past Tulsa 101-60 before 2,464 at Walton Arena. "We knew Willits was going to be a concern. We didn't want her to get hot, and we kept her to 25," Tulsa Coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said with a smile. Willits has 263 career three-pointers, four shy of the record Kimberly Wilson set from 1994-97, and keyed an Arkansas offense that shot a season-best 59 percent (36 of 61) from the field. She opened the second half with a three-pointer, then hit three more in 93 seconds as Arkansas (9-4) stretched a 44-27 halftime lead to 66-38 with 14:06 remaining. Willits, who also holds school records for most three-pointers in a half (6) and a game (9), will get a chance to break Wilson's record when Arkansas plays host to second-ranked Tennessee (13-1) Sunday at 2 p.m. "I'm not really going to look at that right now," Willits said. "If it happens against Tennessee, that's great, but we've got to start winning. That's our only priority." The Lady Razorbacks played like that against the Golden Hurricane (3-8), handing Tulsa the second-worst loss in program history and scoring the most points against a Tulsa team since the 1980-81 season. "When I decided to come to Tulsa, I wanted to play a very competitive schedule," McConnell-Miller said. "We wanted to play the best and we're not going to achieve the level that I want to achieve if we don't play teams like Arkansas. "Yes, they are much farther along than us at this point, but I'm going to continue to play them until our team can compete against teams like Arkansas." Arkansas also got 20 points in 28 minutes off the bench from sophomore guard Dana Cherry. Coach Gary Blair actually planned to play Cherry less minutes in an effort to keep her fresh for Sunday's game, but said he didn't want to disrupt her rhythm. "Cherry got tired of sitting over there by me," Blair said. "That kid was like a wild stallion when she came in. If I would've taken her out, the crowd would have booed me. I mean, she was hot." Senior center Lonniya Bragg added 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and sophomore forward Lakishia Harper scored a season-high 10. Junior point guard Amy Wright added nine assists for an Arkansas team that had a season-low 10 turnovers. Tulsa, meanwhile, matched a season-high with 25 turnovers that led to 38 Arkansas points. Leela Farr scored 20 points to lead the Golden Hurricane, which also got 13 from Fayetteville freshman Candice Brewer. "[Brewer] is, in my opinion, one of the best athletes I've ever coached," McConnell-Miller said. "She's got a knack for the ball, she's got a great jump shot, she can rebound and she's one of the most coachable players that we have on this team. "Yes, that's indicative of what she's done this season, and she's capable of so much more. She's not going to come out of the lineup. That's for sure."
Halftime -- Arkansas 44, Tulsa 27 Officials -- Enterline, Cloud, Maddock Attendance -- 2,464
This article was published on January 6, 2001RETURN to main page
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