LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (2/25/2012) — The Arkansas State Red Wolves trailed UALR by just five at halftime, but a 15-2 run out of the break by the Trojans was too much for ASU to overcome as the Red Wolves fell 59-43 Saturday afternoon in Sun Belt Conference women's basketball action at the Jack Stephens Center.

Arkansas State (12-17, 6-10) trailed 29-24 at the half, but UALR (17-12, 12-4) capitalized on its advantage on the glass to build a 44-26 lead with 12 minutes to play. 

The Trojans finished the game with a 45-22 advantage on the boards and held the Red Wolves to 27.3 percent shooting in the second half.

Arkansas State was led by senior NeNe Hurst- McLennan with 19 points.  Junior Ashley Olvera added 12 points and sophomore Jane Morrill finished with 10 points, her 27^th double-digit scoring game of the season.

Senior Marian Kursh led UALR with 21 points and 12 rebounds, and senior Britteni Williams added 10 points and 16 rebounds.

“It was certainly a game of two different halves,” said ASU head coach Brian Boyer.  “I thought in the first half, we competed really well.  We had some opportunities to make it an even better half, we just didn’t finish some pretty easy shots.  That, and their second chances hurt us.  I think of their first 17 points, nine were off of offensive rebounds.  At the half, we felt if we could do a better job of resolving that, we would be okay. But we didn’t get it resolved, and in the second half it got worse.”

The Trojans built their advantage to 55-31 with 5:11 remaining on a layup from Williams before a late push by the Red Wolves cut the deficit to 16.

For the game, the Red Wolves finished the day shooting 15-of-49 (.306) while UALR hit 22 of 57 attempts (.407).  Arkansas State was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line, while UALR went 12-of-15 (.800).

Arkansas State will now move on to the March 3-6 Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Hot Springs.  The Red Wolves enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed from the West division and will face South Alabama, the No. 4 seed from the East division March 3 at 2:30 p.m.