Reed has opponents’ attention After earning first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors last season, UALR junior Chastity Reed isn’t going to sneak up on anybody this season. In UALR’s seasonopening loss at Oklahoma State, Reed finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds. But she had to work to do it. She finished with five turnovers and made 9 of 25 field-goal attempts. “You’ll see a lot of teams that every time she catches the ball there will be a net around the basket, not letting her penetrate,” UALR Coach Joe Foley said. “I think it’s going to be tough on her. She also ought to get a lot more assists because we ought to have kids taking open shots.” Reed is expecting the increased attention from opponents this season. “I practice for double teams all the time, and I know my teammates can pick up the slack for that,” Reed said. Validation UALR had Oklahoma State beat for much of last Friday’s season opener before losing 67-58 in the first round of the Women’s Preseason NIT. That loss was validated a bit more after Oklahoma State went on to upset No. 17 Georgia Tech 70-64 on Sunday before winning 70-54 at New Mexico on Thursday to advance to the championship. “I think we’ve got a chance to be a good ball club,” UALR Coach Joe Foley said. “But I also think some of the teams in our league, the Middle Tennessees and the Western Kentuckys, are better than some of the teams in the bigger conferences.” Oklahoma State plays either Ohio State or West Virginia in the championship game Sunday. Improving defense One area of improvement for the UALR women early in the season has been on defense. After struggling in a closed scrimmage with Oral Roberts, UALR held Oklahoma State to 36 percent shooting in a 67-58 loss last Friday. “Some of that was having Kim Sitzmann back, and some of that was having tape to watch of them last year,” UALR Coach Joe Foley said. “If we didn’t have to foul in the last minutes, they would have been in the low 60s. That would have been a pretty good defensive effort. I was a little bit more pleased. As long as we had our nucleus on the floor, we played a pretty good basketball game.” Two home games UALR will host the consolation bracket for the Women’s Preseason NIT beginning tonight. The Trojans (0-1) will play Northern Colorado (0-1) at 7:30 tonight as the second game of a doubleheader at the Jack Stephens Center. Texas-El Paso and Eastern Illinois will play the first game at 5 p.m. The losers will play at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and the winners at 7 p.m. Saturday. The games are not included as part of the UALR season ticket package. Tickets are $12 for leather seats, $8 for Level 200 seats and $6 for end zone seats. The box office will open at 3:30 p.m. today. Two more sign UALR wrapped up the fall signing period with signatures from point guard Nia Gregory and guard Karisma Tyson. Gregory, 5-6 from Collierville, Tenn., averaged 8 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists per game last season while shooting 45 percent on three-point attempts. UALR Coach Joe Foley said she is a similar player to UALR junior Asriel Rolfe. “Nia is an athletic kid with good energy who plays hard,” Foley said. “She can shoot and play on the point.” Tyson is a 6-0 shooting guard from Memphis Overton. “We are very excited to get Karisma, because I think she is one of the highlyrecruited kids on our list this year,” Foley said. “She is an excellent shooter. We need shooters. It was imperative that we got a kid like Karisma.” UALR signed forwards Asiah Scribner, Whitney Gaston-Loyd and Hannah Fohne last week. Preseason Women’s NIT TONIGHT’S GAMES Jack Stephens Center, Little Rock Consolation round Texas-El Paso vs. Eastern Illinois, 5 p.m. UALR vs. Northern Colorado, 7:30 p.m. Democrat-Gazette/KAREN E. SEGRAVE UALR junior Chastity Reed finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds in the Trojans’ season-opening loss to Oklahoma State.
