Arkansas senior guard Lyndsay Harris leads the Razorbacks in 3-point baskets with 33. Photo by Logan Webster.
Arkansas’ women’s basketball team will try to carry the effort gained Sunday in a 59-39 win against Auburn into their game against No. 25 Vanderbilt on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena.
The Razorbacks (12-5, 1-4 Southeastern Conference) are trying to win their second consecutive game after losing their first four conference games.
“We are more confident, we really never lost it,” senior forward Ashley Daniels said. “It also gives us that extra boost that we can come out and compete and be a better team really all around.”
Arkansas will try to win its second game against a ranked opponent after beating then-No. 13 Florida State 55-52 in November. The Razorbacks have since lost to three ranked SEC opponents.
“I think it’s going to be a good momentum builder to start with a win in the SEC and it will give us some more confidence to go out there and play against Vanderbilt,” junior Sarah Watkins said.
Vanderbilt is solid on both ends of the floor. The Commodores’ 76.8 points per game ranks third in the SEC, while their 55.6 points allowed is fourth.
“They’re a great defensive and also a great offensive team,” Daniels said. “It’s kind of new, something we haven’t ran into yet, with their offense and all the screens and all the motions plays and it’s going to be kind of new to us but we’re up for the challenge and we’re ready for the game.
Vanderbilt leads the conference in shooting and also hits an SEC-best 44 percent of its 3-pointers, more than 6 percent better than Tennessee, the No. 2 team.
The Commodores have a balanced attack, with sophomore guard Christina Foggie’s 17.3 points per game leading four players averaging double figures scoring.
“If you fall asleep, if you take a nap they’re going to score on you,” head coach Tom Collen said. “They’ve got great inside play. They rotate a couple of five players in there. They get more scoring out of their post position than any other position on the floor. With that being said, they have the (second)-leading scorer in the SEC (Foggie), as well.
“So they can score inside, they can shoot out. They shoot the highest percentage in the league. They shoot the highest 3-point percentage in the league. It’s going to be a great challenge for our defense to slow them down.”
Arkansas has relied on its’ defense during the season so far to help generate play on the offensive end, allowing just 54.2 points per game and forcing almost 19 turnovers per game.
“I think all year we’ve been feeding off our defense and to hold (Auburn) under 40 points, it was big for us and also gave us a chance to get our offense started,” junior post Sarah Watkins said. “When we went through little droughts throughout the game it was good that we were getting defensive stops so it didn’t seem so bad when we weren’t performing well on offense.”
The Razorbacks defense will be tested against high-scoring Vanderbilt.
“I think our defense is a little better than what it’s ranked in the SEC right now, but some of that comes from the fact that we’ve played three of the best four offensive teams, and now we’re getting to play maybe the best offensive team in the league,” Collen said. “That will be a challenge. Our defense will be very important to us to come away with a win against Vanderbilt.”
Getting back to how Arkansas played in its 11-game winning streak in nonconference play is important, Collen said.
“I think we’re a little bit better team than we were before we played the Auburn game,” Collen said. “During the streak we got off to, we struggled really at both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively. We preach to the kids about the fact that our defense can really generate our offense if we let it do that.”