Arkansas women’s hoops rallies from 16 points down late to shock Little Rock

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

Arkansas took its women’s basketball program to the state capital on Monday – a trip that started about as bad as one could, but one that finished in dominating fashion.

Izzy Higginbottom scored all 24 of her points in the second half and Kiki Smith added 16 as the Razorbacks rallied from a 16-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to shock host Little Rock 71-60 in overtime at the Jack Stephens Center.

The Razorbacks (2-1) scored all 11 points in overtime – with Higginbottom notching the first seven and then dishing out her sixth assist – to put the game away before 1,274 fans.

“Great atmosphere and obviously an unbelievable second half for us,” Arkansas head coach Mike Neighbors said. “A young team grew up tonight.

“I think they just kind of decided (they weren’t going to lose). They decided. We kept talking about it, kept encouraging. It was as encouraging as our bench has been since I have been the coach at Arkansas.

“Our staff, our players were all encouraging each other. ‘Hang in there, we’ve worked on this, we can get it going, we have just got to start now.’ And we kept kind of prolonging that – now, now, now and finally it just clicked.”

Vera Ojenuawa added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Arkansas (2-1), who remained unbeaten in seven career games against the school formerly known as UALR.

Higginbottom, who hit all 11 of her free throws, threw the figurative knockout punch in the extra frame.

“I was more aggressive, but also understanding angles,” Higginbottom said. Once we got more movement off the ball, it just opens lanes so I think that is really what happened.”

“I think I obviously have to thank our strength and conditioning Tyler (Beckman) and our athletic trainer Simone (Rush),” Neighbors said. “I think down the stretch we were in such great shape. All of our people that do that – our nutritionist, everybody that works on that stuff. That comes to play late in the game.

Little Rock (1-1) led 10-0 and 13-3 early as Arkansas was just 3of 18 shooting at one point and also had 13 turnovers in the opening two quarters.

“We were not sleepwalking, we were cold,” Neighbors said. “It was freezing. We were looking for blankets and heaters. But that’s no excuse…They were red-hot. Every play we tried to run, they were sitting on top of.”

Little Rock led 28-18 at halftime and 54-38 before Arkansas came roaring back.

“I never felt like the game was out of reach, but it was starting to feel like it because they were really clicking,” Neighbors said. “I thought Faith Lee (21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) was amazing. They were killing us on the boards. (Emerald) Parker (8 points, 16 rebounds) had 10 offensive rebounds.

“I had 10 offensive rebounds from seventh grade to my senior year.”

But Higginbottom took over in the second half and was ably assisted by Smith.

“She just never got rattled,” Neighbors said. “She was frustrated at halftime and I was frustrated for her…And then we got back to some things we had been working on since day one. Coach Todd challenged them on defense and we just had a little bit of pride in stopping your kid one-on-one.”

Both teams had shots to win in regulation and the Trojans also missed four free throws late to allow the Razorbacks to push the game into overtime.

“We just started getting more stops and also getting more movement on offense, honestly,” Higginbottom said. “I felt like our energy and effort also picked up.”

Sug Williams added 18 points for Little Rock was just 2 of 22 from the field in the last 15 minutes as first-year head coach Steve Weidower’s team couldn’t hold off Arkansas.

“They are going to have a great year,” Neighbors said. “Steve has done a great job following a legend in Coach (Joe) Foley and we are real happy to have this win.”

Arkansas hosts the University of Texas-Arlington Thursday night at 6:30 before traveling to play No. 5 UCLA Sunday night at 6 in a game that will be televised by the Big Ten Network.

Photo courtesy of Razorbacks Communiations