UALR women win 14th consecutive game, wrap up fourth consecutive division championship

BURN THE HORSE
   MONROE, La. -- Chastity Reed scored her 2,000th-career point and UALR played grinder ball to eek out another Sun Belt Conference victory on Sunday.
Chastity Reed became the first UALR
player, man or woman, to reach 2,000
points on Sunday.
   Reed finished with 18 points as UALR held off Louisiana-Monroe 55-52 at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. The victory clinches a tie for the Sun Belt Conference’s West Division Championship and the No. 1 seed from the West Division at next month’s Sun Belt Tournament in Hot Springs. It is UALR's fourth consecutive division championship.
   Middle Tennessee has already clinched the East Division championship and the other No. 1 seed.
   UALR improved to 11-0 in conference. Second-place Denver can finish 11-5 at best, but UALR already swept the regular-season from the Lady Pioneers. That puts UALR as the top seed from the West.
The Trojans have now won 14 consecutive games. UALR has also won 28 consecutive regular season Sun Belt Conference games and 16 consecutive games played in February.
   Much like many of the previous 13 games in the winning streak, UALR used defensive stops to grind out the victory. With the Trojans struggling to score and make free throws, Louisiana-Monroe’s Kassie Courtney cut the lead to 54-52 with 10 seconds left.
   ULM fouled Shanika Butler, who made only 1 of 2 free throws. ULM’s Priscilla Mbiandja got a look at a last-second three-pointer but missed and Reed grabbed the rebound to clinch the victory.
   After a hot start from the field, Reed was limited to only 16 minutes. She made 7 of 13 field goals.
Asriel Rolfe and Marian Kursh had 12 points with Kursh grabbing six rebounds. Hannah Fohne scored only 2 points in 22 minutes, but had 8 rebounds.
   Both teams shot 17 of 49 from the field for 34.7 percent and both made four three-pointers. The difference was that UALR’s was able to overcome horrible free throw shooting by getting to the line time and time again. UALR made 17 of 35 free throws while ULM made 14 of 20. UALR also held a 37-32 advantage in rebounds.