Dec. 9, 2000

Box Score

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. - The University of Memphis women's basketball team improved to 6-2 on the year with a 72-64 win over Arkansas-Little Rock here at Alltel arena Saturday evening. UALR drops to 2-5 on the year.

Tiffany Adkins led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 18 points off a 5-of-12 shooting effort from the field. Adkins was 8-of-9 from the free-throw line. Also in double digits for Memphis were Shannon Hamp with 14 points, Malissa Bush with 12 points and Melissa Abraham who chipped in 11 points.

The Lady Tigers outrebounded UALR, 46-39, led by Bush's eight boards. Adkins and Abraham both hauled in seven rebounds apiece. The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Lady Tigers and was the second win in Alltel Arena. Memphis played the first event in the newly-constructed arena last year, defeating the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks.

"A win on the road is a win that we will take," said head coach Joye Lee-McNelis. "I thought that at times, our intensity on defense was very good and we made a lot of things happen in our press. I think that the errors that we made were mental errors like at the end of the game when we gave up two threes in two trips. I thought our effort was there, but I thought that there were times when we lost our focus."

The game was much closer that Memphis' 92-53 win over UALR last season. The Lady Tigers led most of the game, but the Lady Trojans didn't allow the game to get further than 10 points out of their reach. UALR managed to close the gap to six points off two treys by sophomore Muci Haris, but that was in the final minute of the game. UALR was forced to foul in order to have the clock on their side, but Kaneshi Hart and Tiffany Collins hit both of their two-shot free throws in order to seal the victory.

"I looked at how close UALR had played their opponents at home and I knew that this was not going to be an easy game," said McNelis when asked if she was surprised by the closeness of the game. "I told the team that they were going to have to battle because UALR had played some tough competition early on."

The Lady Tigers took a six-point lead, 34-28, into the lockerroom at the half after shooting 33 percent from the field (12-of-26) and 81 percent (9-of-11) from the free throw line. Memphis hit seven straight free throws in the first half, which was a turnaround from the previous game versus Alabama when Memphis missed nine straight charity shots. Tiffany Adkins led Memphis in scoring in the first half with 11 points. Malissa Bush controlled the boards, hauling in six rebounds in the half. UALR shot 41.4 percent (12-of-29) from the field, led by Mandi Huskey's seven points. The Lady Tigers outrebounded UALR, 28-17, in the first half and forced the Trojans to turn the ball over 13 times.

Muci Haris led UALR in scoring with 17 points off a 4-of-12 shooting effort from the field. She was 2-of-7 from behind the arc and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. Scealita Drennon was the only other Lady Trojan in double figures with 13 points. Shemeka Strong led her squad in rebounding, pulling down seven boards.

The Lady Tigers will play their fifth straight road game this week when they travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on the Lady Vols of Tennessee on Dec. 15. Memphis' next home game will not be until Dec. 29 when they host Tennessee Tech at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.