UA women come to life in 2nd half

ROB KEYS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

MONROE, La. - What was supposed to be a tuneup almost turned out to be a trap.
Taking a break from SEC action, Arkansas overcame a four-point halftime deficit and beat Louisiana-Monroe 86-70 in front of 958 Wednesday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
Arkansas had won three consecutive conference games, including back-to-back upsets of Top 25 teams, heading into Wednesday's game, which lacked the luster of most SEC contests.
"It was one of those things where we wanted to keep playing SEC teams, keep trying to knock people off, then we had to come down here," said senior guard Wendi Willits, who finished with 20 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. "But we didn't want to get down because we knew they were a good team and they were looking to knock somebody off. We just knew we had to keep the pressure on them."
The Lady Razorbacks (13-6) did get down in the first half. They blew a 12-point lead by allowing the Lady Indians (11-6) to make six three-pointers in the final 12:00 of the first half to build a 42-38 lead at halftime.
"When they got hot, they got red-hot," Arkansas Coach Gary Blair said.
Blair followed Louisiana-Monroe's hot-shooting spree with a fiery halftime speech.
"It wasn't pleasant," Blair said. "I got tired of listening to excuses ... and told them that we're a basketball team and that you play who you're given."
The Lady Razorbacks got Blair's message, as Arkansas scored the first 14 points of the second half to take a 52-42 lead. Louisiana-Monroe never got closer than eight points the rest of the game.
"What we decided was we better learn how to guard people in the halfcourt before we can start talking about the fullcourt (press)," Blair said. "On offense, I said, 'I'm tired of seeing all you jump shooters. We're going to that glass,' and I thought Dana Cherry did a tremendous job of that. She started basket attacking."
Cherry, a sophomore from Pine Bluff who finished with 20 points and 9 rebounds, scored 8 points - all on layups - during Arkansas' spurt, which Danielle Butler finally stopped on a layup with 14:54 to play.
But Cherry answered with another layup on Arkansas' ensuing possession and the Lady Razorbacks led by 10 points or more the rest of the way.
"Basically we came out and tried to play good defense on their shooters, which freed me to kind of snow-bird out," Cherry said. "That's what got me my layups on the other end. We just had to turn the tempo up."
Senior Lonniya Bragg followed Cherry's layup to give Arkansas a 56-44 lead with 13:34 remaining, and the Lady Razorbacks pushed their advantage to as many as 19 points on two occasions. The first came on a Shanna Harmon three-pointer with 7:40 to play and the last on a Celia Anderson layup 38 seconds later.
Louisiana-Monroe didn't get closer than 15 points in the final 6:00, and Cherry capped Arkansas' scoring on a layup with 1:11 remaining.
It also was Cherry and Willits who sparked Arkansas to the early 20-8 lead. Willits opened the scoring with a three-pointer and scored five points in the first four minutes of play. Willits has 279 career three-pointers, the second-most total in SEC history. Former LSU guard Cornelia Gayden holds the league mark with 337.
Cherry got loose for two mid-range jump shots during Arkansas' early run, and finished with her highest offensive output since scoring 23 in a 87-48 rout of Harvard on Dec. 21.
Louisiana-Monroe fought back to take a 28-27 lead on a three-pointer by Ilona Hollosy 6:38 before halftime.
Miranda Hasley followed with another three-pointer 50 seconds later for a 31-27 Louisiana-Monroe lead, and the Lady Indians extended their advantage to as many as six points twice late in the half.
Cherry hit a 15-foot, baseline jumper 31 seconds before halftime to get Arkansas within 42-38 and set up the Lady Razorbacks' second-half rally.
Arkansas shot 20 of 32 (63 percent) in the second half, while limiting Louisiana-Monroe to 10 of 31 (32 percent). The Lady Indians also made just 3 of 9 three-point shots in the second half after making 6 of 9 in the first half.
The Lady Razorbacks also enjoyed their biggest rebounding advantage, 47-25, of the season, including an 18-8 advantage on the offensive end.
Arkansas returns to SEC action on Sunday, when it plays host to Auburn at 2 p.m., then takes a two-game road trip to Alabama and Kentucky.

This article was published on January 25, 2001

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