NEW ORLEANS, La. (2/6/10) - Trailing by 15 points with 16 minutes to play, the Arkansas State Red Wolves (9-14, 4-8) cut New Orleans' lead to five points at 47-42 with 11:44 remaining, but ASU could not complete the comeback and fell to the Privateers 70-57 Saturday afternoon at Lakefront Arena.
New Orleans (9-15, 3-10) led 45-30 when guard Rachele Monroe hit from three-point range at the 16-minute mark, but the Red Wolves went on a 12-2 run over the next 4:16 to pull within five at 47-42. Senior guard Ebonie Jefferson, who led the Red Wolves with 17 points, scored four straight to spark the run.
Junior forward Shay Scott knocked down a pair of free throws with 14:16 remaining to trim the UNO lead to 45-36, then fed sophomore guard Meghan Lewis for a layup following a New Orleans miss to cut the Privateers' lead to seven at 45-38.
New Orleans answered with a pair of free throws from guard Brittany Helm to push the Privateers lead back to nine before ASU sophomore guard NeNe Hurst hit back-to-back jumpers to make it a five-point game.
Following a timeout, UNO outscored the Red Wolves 13-3 in just under six minutes to push the Privateers' lead back to 15 at 60-45 with 5:54 remaining, and ASU did not get within single digits the rest of the way.
"I thought the second half was much better," said ASU head coach Brian Boyer. "We kept them off the boards and took care of the ball but the damage was already done."
"We just seemed to miss easy shots," added Boyer. "Especially early, we got the shots we wanted and we were getting the ball inside, we just didn't finish. It's disappointing because we got pretty good shots, they just didn't go in."
New Orleans shot 50 percent from the field and outrebounded the Red Wolves 22-9 in the first 20 minutes to take a 32-20 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.
After giving up 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, Arkansas State kept UNO off of the offensive glass in the second half, limiting the Privateers to just two offensive boards, but New Orleans hit 10-of-21 shots from the field and 10-of-13 from the line to help hold off the Red Wolves.
Arkansas State shot 36.4 percent on the afternoon from the field and 65 percent (13-20) from the free throw line.
In addition to Jefferson's 17 points, Arkansas State also got seven points and seven rebounds from Scott, nine from Hurst, eight from freshman Jasmine Taylor and seven from Lewis.
UNO guard Nicole Holmes led all scorers with 20 points, and Helm added 17 for the Privateers.
Arkansas State will return to action Monday, Feb. 8 when the Red Wolves host Louisiana-Monroe in a 7:05 p.m. game at the ASU Convocation Center.
