James, UALR bouncing back
Shanity James couldn’t hide from one of the toughest moments of her junior season.
Last Friday, the day after UALR’s 70-69 loss at Arkansas State, UALR Coach Joe Foley popped in the game tape. There, with James’ name labeled on the screen, the junior forward had to watch again as she put up a shot she didn’t have to take in the final seconds of the loss.
If James had held onto the ball after corralling Kaitlynn Pratt’s pass from the sideline and waited to get fouled, UALR (17-3, 10-1 Sun Belt Conference) might be taking an unbeaten conference record into today’s 5:30 p.m. game against Louisiana-Monroe (9-11, 5-6) at
the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
Instead, James took the shot and missed, and after ASU got the rebound, Jasmine Hunt made two free throws to seal UALR’s first conference loss.
“I try to learn from it so that I know that if I’m in that situation again, it won’t happen again,” James said. “But it’s always going to bother me.”
Foley watched closely in Saturday’s game against Georgia Southern for how James would respond, and she had 17 points and 10 rebounds in a 58-44 victory.
“I was kind of watching her just to see how it affected her,” Foley said. “She really got us going in that second half and played pretty well.”
Good thing, considering how much she’s meant for the Trojans so far.
In the middle of her junior season, James has become a mainstay in the Trojans’ starting lineup while serving as one of their best defenders and top low-post scorer.
She’s started 19 consecutive games this season, after starting 28 games last year. As a freshman, she was thrown into the starting lineup midseason and started the final 17 games, even though she admits now she didn’t always know what she was doing.
Now she’s one of the Trojans most consistent players, averaging 12.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 29.8 minutes per game. In Sun Belt games, she’s averaging 13.6 points and 8.6 rebounds and she’s scored 15 or more points in five of UALR’s past seven games. Three times in her past five games, she’s had at least 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“Miss Double-Double,” teammate Taylor Gault called her.
James laughed off the compliment, acknowledging that she’s come a long way since not being sure what she was doing as a freshman.
Now Foley said he regularly recognizes her “basketball IQ” and credits her direction of sophomore forwards Keanna Keys and Pratt while playing defense in the post.
“When we take her out and we have both of those two in the game, you can really tell the difference,” Foley said. “She keeps our defense together inside.”
Two days after UALR’s worst defensive game of the year against ASU, James helped lead a stronger defensive effort Saturday. Against Georgia Southern, the Trojans held the Eagles to 36.2 percent shooting, 1 of 15 from three-point range and forced 15 turnovers.
While Georgia Southern is near the bottom of the Sun Belt standings, Saturday’s victory helped UALR hang onto the first-place spot.
“It was something that we had to do,” James said of responding with a victory Saturday. “If we were to come off or played sluggish, it just would have been a bad taste for the rest of the season.”