No. 6 Texas holds on to beat Arkansas-Little Rock 66-56
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) Brooke McCarty scored 23 points and made all eight of her free-throw attempts to help No. 6 Texas rally for a 66-56 win over Arkansas-Little Rock on Sunday.
The Longhorns (7-0) trailed 48-35 after three quarters but used a 31-8 run in the fourth to pull away.
McCarty scored 16 of her points in the fourth quarter and finished 6 of 11 from the field, including 3 of 5 on 3-pointers. Kelsey Lang had 12 points and Imani Boyette had 10 for Texas, which outrebounded the Trojans 37-23.
Sharde' Collins led UALR (2-4) with a career-high 21 points. Alexius Dawn and Shanity James had 12 points each in the loss. UALR advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Trojans led 37-35 at halftime, then stretched that lead with an 11-0 run to start the third quarter.
Collins hit a 3-pointer to put UALR up 46-35, and Dawn followed with a layup to put the Trojans up by 13 points with 4:34 remaining in the third quarter.
However, UALR was unable to score again in the quarter and Texas opened the fourth on a 15-0 run - taking a 50-48 lead after a jumper by Boyette.
The Trojans tied the game at 50 on a layup by James, but they were unable to slow the Longhorns' fourth-quarter rally. Brianna Taylor's layup capped a dramatic 25-2 run by Texas to open the quarter and put the Longhorns up 60-50.
Texas led 21-20 after the first quarter, but UALR began a 28-14 run in the second - with Collins scoring 14 of her points in the first half and James adding eight. Collins hit 6 of 7 shots from the field in the first half, during which the Trojans were 16 of 29 (55.2 percent) overall.
Collins put the Trojans up 12-9 in the first quarter, but Texas answered with an 8-0 run to take a 17-12 lead less than 2 minutes later.
UALR scored 18 points off 18 Texas turnovers, and it had 14 fast-break points.
TIP INS
Texas: McCarty's scoring highlighted a performance in which the Longhorns bench scored 35 points overall, all from McCarty and Lang. The two were a combined 12 of 22 from the field.
UALR: James scored in double figures for the sixth time in as many games this season, and she finished with a team-high eight rebounds.
UP NEXT
Texas hosts No. 16 Stanford on Dec. 13.
UALR hosts Tulsa on Dec. 13.
