University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
* ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK
Cajuns capture senior night victory over Arkansas Little Rock
2/22/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
LAFAYETTE - Fittingly on senior night it was Louisiana-Lafayette's three seniors who propelled the Cajuns to a thrilling 55-53 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday night.
As she has done throughout her four-year career, Charlotte Green was the key for the hosts. Green led the Cajuns with 14 points, six steals and three assists.
Sarah Richey followed suit to her Cajuns career with nine points and a team-best six rebounds and five blocked shots.
Brooke Williams gave another typical game that won't show up on the stat sheet, solid defense and emotional leadership.
Williams' defense was no more critical than on the final play of the game.
The Cajuns had the ball and a 55-53 lead, but a shot clock violation gave UALR the ball back with 11.9 seconds on the clock. An attempted entry pass to Roberta Sarti in the low post was deflected away by Williams to seal the win for UL Lafayette.
The lone freshman on the Cajuns also came-up big, as Ashley Blanche finished the night with 14 points, three assists and three steals in 22 minutes.
Sarti led all scorers with 21 points, 19 of which came in the second half. The UALR junior opened the second half outscoring UL Lafayette 8-4 to bring the Trojans within a basket at 34-31 with 16 minutes remaining.
The Cajuns grabbed their first rebound of the second half with 13:15 remaining on a defensive snare by Anna Petrakova. Even though UL Lafayette lacked a presence on the boards, the Cajuns still led 36-31.
UALR tied the score at 36-36 with the help of Sarti, who had 11 points in the first ten minutes of the second frame.
Louisiana-Lafayette's cold streak from the floor ended as a short 5-0 spurt put the hosts back in front.
The Trojans came back, using several baskets from Sarti, to tie the score at 46-46 with 5:36 remaining
Green then took control of the game for the next two minutes. Several key steals and a pair of baskets, along with a basket from Blanche propelled the Cajuns to a 53-47 lead.
Then a technical foul on Sarah Richey, in addition to a charged foul, gave UALR four free throws to pull within 53-51.
Blanche and Sarti traded baskets, with the later coming with 44 seconds remaining to set-up the dramatic ending.
UALR dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Cajuns 44-25. UL Lafayette was able to counter their inefficiency on the boards with 12 steals to the Trojans two. UL Lafayette turned the ball over only seven times, to 22 miscues by UALR.
Trailing 10-4 early, the Cajuns used an 8-0 run to take a 12-10 lead. Bernette Tolston and Green hit three-pointers around a long jumper by Richey.
Asten Kennedy answered for the Trojans to knot the score at 12-12.
Richey returned the favor to give UL Lafayette a lead that they would hold onto for the rest of the half.
Blanche hit a trey to give the Cajuns a seven-point edge, 23-16. Each team would score seven point apiece to end the half with Louisiana-Lafayette up 30-23.
Arkansas-Little Rock (53) Sarti 8-17 5-6 21; Stone 3-6 2-4 11; Brooks 3-6 4-4 10; Humphrey 4-5 0-0 8; Taylor 1-5 0-2 3; Skoro 0-3 0-0 0; Kennedy 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-44 11-16 53.
UL Lafayette (55) Blanche 5-6 2-5 14; Green 6-17 0-0 14; Richey 4-11 1-3 9; Glenn 3-5 0-1 6; White 2-4 0-0 4; Williams 2-7 0-0 4; Tolston 1-6 0-0 3; Petrakova 0-6 1-2 1. Totals 23-62 4-11 55.
Halftime- ULL 30, UALR 23. 3-point goals-UALR 4-8 (Stone 3-4; Taylor 1-3; Sarti 0-1), ULL 5-20 (Green 2-10; Blanche 2-2; Tolston 1-5; Petrakova 0-2; Richey 0-1). Fouled out--UALR-None, ULL-Richey. Rebounds-UALR 44 (Humphrey 12), ULL 25 (Richey 6). Assists-UALR 14 (Sarti 4; Taylor 4), ULL 10 (Blanche 3; Green 3). Total fouls-UALR 17, ULL 15. A-235
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