Arkansas hammers Louisiana-Monroe

Women's Basketball

By: Derek Oxford

Posted: 11/17/08

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.

Of those 24 turnovers, Arkansas turned them into 23 points, and there was a 14-2 margin in fast break opportunities against the Warhawks.

"Associate head coach Tim Eatman worked very hard getting our pressure in place," Collen said. "It will be better this year but it was pretty darn good today."

Shanita Arnold added seven points, seven assists and five rebounds working out of a point guard role.

"We came out playing hard and we wanted to set the tempo early," Arnold said.

Brereton earned the first two points of the season for Arkansas with a lay-in off a steal on a fast break for the Razorbacks.

Arnold's three-pointer at the 16:06 mark of the first half was the first of the season for Arkansas and gave the Hogs an early 10-5 advantage.

The Razorbacks mostly struggled from the field after that, however, connecting on only 12 of its 33 shot attempts in the first half.

Jones hit a jumper for Arkansas to give the Razorbacks their first double-digit lead at 22-12 with 7:53 remaining in the opening half.

Ricketts hit two free throws the next trip down to extend the lead to 12, but ULM answered and cut the lead to seven before Arkansas connected for two baskets - a layup by Jones and a jumper by Arnold - right before the buzzer sounded.

Arkansas led only 30-19 at the break, but outscored ULM 47-19 in the second half.

"They're an improved team over where they were last year," ULM head coach Mona Martin said. "We're very young and we shot the ball poorly but I don't want to take away from Arkansas because their defense had a lot to do with that."

Ricketts scored 10 of her game-high 14 in the second half, while Charity Ford, who had 10, scored eight during that period.

Lyndsay Harris was the fifth player for Arkansas in double figures with 10.

ULM didn't have a player reach double figures, but Sumar Leslie had eight for the Warhawks.

Arkansas will have three days off before it returns to the court to face High Point Wednesday night.

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. from Bud Walton Arena.