The Bobcats had some bumps and bruises during their two weeks between games.
Little Rock had to cancel its home series with Texas State last week due to the Sun Belt’s COVID-19 protocols. In the time since, sophomore guard Keslyn King, who had started the past six contests for the Bobcats, suffered a soft tissue injury during practice and was ruled out for Friday’s home game against Louisiana-Monroe. Head coach Zenarae Antoine said she wasn’t sure how long King would be out and that the team is handling her injury day-by-day.
Kennedy Taylor also hurt her left hand in practice and had it wrapped up against the Warhawks. But it didn’t affect her too much as the junior starting point guard shook off any pain she was feeling and canned a career-high four 3-pointers to help Texas State earn a 74-52 victory over ULM.
Correction: THIS is No. 4 for @_kennedyt_ @smdrsports https://t.co/Wy5VmfP4Tf pic.twitter.com/zX1Pcvm7o5
— Drew King (@drewking0222) January 22, 2021
“You know what, Kennedy has done a great job. She is our best percentage 3-point shooter right now, so I'm not surprised because this young woman has been getting in the gym and working really hard,” Antoine said. “It's a way that she can help the team and she knew that people are gonna be playing us in a lot more zone now. And if she knocks down those shots, it's gonna make it tougher for teams to make decisions on if you’re gonna play man or zone.”
The gap in the maroon and gold’s schedule wasn’t all bad. Antoine said it afforded the players an opportunity to decompress and focus on specific things the team had been struggling with — like scoring against a 2-3 zone.
The Bobcats handled the Warhawks’ zone well through most of the first half. They bent the defense to get the ball inside to Lauryn Thompson early and finished the first two quarters with eight points and five rebounds. They also shot it well from outside, going 4-9 from behind the arc in the half.
By the 2:47 mark of the second quarter, the hosts held a 34-21 lead.
“I feel like the team did a much better job of recognizing and seeing that,” Antoine said. “Knowing that this opportunity we were going to have playing against ULM, which has been playing more zone, that we would see it, I'm really proud of that piece of it, as far as being able to execute against the zone.”
But the Bobcats began to struggle defensively at the end of the half, which bled into the third quarter. The visitors began getting to the rim and drawing fouls, allowing them to slow down the tempo and set their defense on the other end.
The Warhawks had cut it to 37-32 at halftime. Midway through the third, they’d taken the lead, 46-44.
During the media timeout of the third quarter, Antoine told her team to pick up the energy levels, especially on defense. The players responded, forcing misses on ULM’s next three shots.
Taylor ran a give-and-go along the arc to knock down a trey at the 3:38 mark of the third to regain the lead. Taylor would go on to score another 12 points before the end of the game, with another two shots coming from deep.
“I think what I've found is, as she's evolved and grown her game … is that the more she's able to hurt teams a little bit by knocking that shot down, it's gonna only help us grow,” Antoine said. “And she probably took a look at the history of the point guards we've had and understood that.
“So she worked a lot on it in the offseason. She worked a ton and she's still working on it now. She's in the gym a lot, working on refining that 3. You see how comfortable she is shooting it now. It's really nice. If you took a look at last year versus this year, you recognize, clearly, this young woman has been getting in the gym.”
The junior’s go-ahead triple sparked a 22-1 run for Texas State, resulting in a 66-47 edge with 6:07 remaining. The Bobcats stayed in front the rest of the way, earning the 74-52 victory.
Taylor finished the night with 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists. She’s now shooting 44.1% from range, by far the best percentage on the team. Junior forward Da’Nasia Hood led the team with 23 points. Thompson ended the game with 12 points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Ja’Kayla Bowie, who started in place of King on Friday, and redshirt junior guard Tianna Eaton tied for a team-high nine boards.
Texas State (5-5, 2-3 Sun Belt) and the Warhawks (2-9, 0-5) are scheduled to play in the second game of their back-to-back on Saturday at 4 p.m. inside Strahan Arena.
