By BRANDY SWEEDEN
UALR sports information
NORMAN, Okla. — In the team’s first NCAA Tournament appearance, No. 11 UALR beat a higher seed, No. 6 Georgia Tech, 63-53 at Lloyd Nobel Center on Sunday.
Senior Kim Sitzmann of Cabot scored a season-high 21 points and tied a season-high with four three-pointers. Junior
Chastity Reed scored 14 points and had a team-high 10 rebounds, while junior Shanika Butler scored 10 points.
“I thought it was a great game,” UALR coach Joe Foley said. “I thought that we did the two things that I felt like we need to do.
I felt like we needed to handle their pressure. I thought we did a great job of handling press, and get some good layups, and some good opportunities to score.”
The Trojans (27-6) had the most victories in school history as they entered Tuesday’s second-round game with Oklahoma.
After Georgia Tech won the opening tip, the Yellow Jackets took a 6-0 lead on layups. TheTrojans scored the team’s first field goal with 16:15 left on a three-pointer by Sitzmann, before Georgia Tech answered with a three by Jasmine Blaine to extend their lead to 9-3.
“I thought Kim knocked down some big threes in the first half to get us going,” Foley said. “I thought our defensive effort was outstanding.”
Sitzmann scored 18 points in the first half, the most in a half she has scored all season, and hit a three-pointer with 4.2 seconds left in the first period to give UALR a 35-26 halftime lead.
Asriel Rolfe opened the second half with a three-pointer, then Georgia Tech scored the team’s first field goal with a putback with 18:36 to go.
UALR outscored Georgia Tech 7-2 over the next three minutes, with four points from Reed for the 45-30 lead with 14:36 remaining.
A jumper by Reed sparked a 7-2 run by the Trojans for the team’s biggest lead, 52-32, with 7:48 to go.
A putback by Chelsea Regins started an 11-0 Georgia Tech run that cut the Trojans’ lead to 52-42 with 4:10 remaining, but UALR was able to hold on down the stretch as each team scored six points in the final 58.4 seconds.
With 15:50 left in the first half, the Trojans went on an 11-2 run, holding the Yellow Jackets scoreless for more than two minutes to take the team’s first lead and extended it to 14-11 with 12:56 until halftime.
Georgia Tech got four straight points from Bridgitte Ardossi to regain the lead, before a three-pointer by Sitzmann followed by a steal by Butler to Britteni Williams for the layup, put UALR back on top 19-15 with 10:22 on the clock.
Over the next four minutes, Sitzmann scored six points for the Trojans to four by Sasha Goodlett for the Yellow Jackets to extend UALR’s lead to 25-19 with 5:21 left in the half.
The teams exchanged points before two free throws by Kursh followed by a fastbreak layup from Sitzmann gave UALR the 32-24 lead. In the remaining 1:17, both teams scored, with Sitzmann making her three-pointer with 4.2 seconds left for the nine-point halfitme lead.
