Lady Backs Blow Out UNO

FAYETTEVILLE - Senior Adrienne Bush scored a career high 18 points to lead the University of Arkansas Lady Razorback basketball team to a 38-point, 84-46 win at Bud Walton Arena on Wednesday night to close out the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule. The win improves the Lady Razorbacks to 7-4 on the year while New Orleans drops to 2-8. Arkansas victory is also its third in a row dating back to Dec. 6. "It was a pretty good first half of defense," Arkansas head coach Susie Gardner said. "Our second half was better offensively. Come January, we are going to have to score off steals. We wont get as many, but this is the key." "Arkansas comes with a lot of defensive pressure," New Orleans head coach Amy Champion said. "We knew that, but they never let down throughout the game." Arkansas opened the contest on an 8-0 run over the first four minutes before New Orleans scored their first bucket at 15:40, just before the first media timeout. Following the score, the Lady Razorbacks would score 19 of the next 21 points over the next nine-plus minutes which included a 17-0 run during a span of 6:03 to give themselves a 23-point lead. The Privateers broke their scoreless drought with a layup with just 5:45 left in the half. The Lady Razorback defense was certainly the catalyst of Arkansas massive first half lead as it caused New Orleans to commit 20 turnovers in the opening period. Those turnovers directly led to 19 Arkansas points including its first 17 of the game. The second half saw New Orleans play much better than their opening 20 minutes as they doubled their point total in the first 10 minutes of action. In fact, the Privateers were only down by four, 16-12, in the second half over that time span. New Orleans continued to keep up with the Lady Razorbacks through most of the second half, but as the team wore down, Arkansas began to shine and build upon its already robust lead. For the contest, all but one Lady Razorback scored with five notching double-digits. Behind Bushs 18, Leslie Howard scored 15, Sheree Thompson (12), Dominique Washington (11) and Whitney Jones (10). Brittany Vaughn may have only scored three for the LadyBacks on the night, but her 12 assists are a career high as she dominated the point in Arkansas 38-point victory. The Lady Razorbacks are back in action on Thursday, Dec. 29, when they face Coppin State in the FIU Sun and Fun Tournament in Miami, Fla. For more information about Lady Razorback basketball or about Arkansas womens athletics, please go to www.ladybacks.com.