Women's Basketball Drops Sunday Afternoon Game To Little Rock

Sunday, December 4

Memphis, Tenn.

2:00 PM

University of Memphis

3-5

Little Rock

5-4

Little Rock

Memphis

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Women's Basketball Drops Sunday Afternoon Game To Little Rock

Dec 04, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Taylor Williams led Memphis with 14 points in the setback

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – In a close game until the very end, the University of Memphis women's basketball team fell to Little Rock by 54-44 margin Sunday afternoon. The Tigers drop to 3-5 on the year and 2-2 at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.

Memphis celebrated Victor Day Sunday as it partnered with the West Cancer Center. During halftime, the Tigers recognized those in attendance who have defeated cancer.

How It Happened
Memphis jumped out to a quick start, taking a 10-4 lead through the first five minutes of action. Taylor Barnes got the scoring started with a lay-up on the Tigers first possession.

Little Rock answered with an 8-0 run to close out the first quarter. The Trojans continued to hold momentum throughout the second, building as much as a six-point lead with 2:43 left before intermission. A pair of baskets by Taylor Williams and Breigha Wilder-Cochran with just under a minute on the clock cut the Little Rock lead back down to two.

The Trojans built a lead to as many as seven in the third quarter before back-to-back Memphis baskets by Williams and Barnes made it a one-possession game. With 5:34 to play in the third, Cheyenne Creighton made a lay-up to cut the Trojan lead down to two, the smallest margin for the remainder of the game.

With 3:59 to play, Little Rock built its lead back up to eight on a Kyra Collier jumper. Loysha Morris started the last charge for Memphis as she drew a foul and made the basket with 2:42 to play. Morris missed the free throw, but the Tigers collected the offensive rebound. Seconds later, Williams drained her second three of the game to cut the Trojan lead back to three.

Three would be as close as the Tigers could come in the closing minutes as Little Rock went 5-for-5 from the charity stripe with two made baskets in the final minute and a half of the game.

Notables

Taylor Williams led the Tigers with 14 points. She has scored in double figures in every game at Elma Roane Fieldhouse this season
Breigha Wilder-Cochran had just her second double figure game of the season with 10 points. Her only other double-digit game this year was on the road at Illinois.
Memphis committed just 16 turnovers compared to 19 by Little Rock, but was outrebounded 37-23 by Little Rock.
Both teams made the same number of total shots (19) and same number of three's (2), but Little Rock finished the game going 14-for-15 from the free throw line while Memphis was 4-for-7.

Quotable – Head Coach Melissa McFerrin
The players that we do have, have to take a little bit more responsibility to make plays, whatever those plays are. We knew that if we lost the battle of the boards, we were likely to lose the game. We've got to take that more seriously. That's going to be a challenge for us all year long. We know that.

Up Next
Memphis will have a week off of play before taking on Southern Illinois on the road next Sunday, Dec. 11 in Carbondale, Ill. Tip-off against the Salukis will be at 2 p.m. and will also be broadcasted on ESPN3. For more information on the Memphis women's basketball team, follow the team on Twitter at @MemphisWBB.