Cotton Blossoms roll to easy win

By Jay Lupo

Of The Commercial Staff

MONTICELLO — By the time Central Baptist College got on the scoreboard with a Sarah Holt free throw at the 15:47 mark of the opening half, it trailed by 17 points.

It was just that kind of night for the Lady Mustangs.

Arkansas-Monticello hit its first six shots from the floor, raced out to an 18-0 lead in the game’s first 4:13 and forced Central Baptist into 27 turnovers Tuesday to cruise to 92-50 win at Steelman Fieldhouse.

It was the Cotton Blossoms’ fourth consecutive victory.

“I thought we played really well tonight,” UAM head coach Chris Ratcliff said. “Anytime you can shoot 43 percent as a team, it’s probably going to be a good night for you. In turn, we held them to 28 percent [shooting] and forced 27 turnovers. Our goal was 30 [turnovers]. We didn’t quite reach that, but it was a terrific performance from a defensive standpoint.

“That’s how I want us to play every night. If we play with that same kind of intensity on defense the rest of the season, then we’re going to win some games.”

Junior Andrea Dubose led the Cotton Blossoms (4-2) with 25 points and six steals. She hit four of her eight three-point attempts and shot 8-of-13 from the floor on Tuesday.

Freshman Janette Thompson posted a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes. Tasha Owens added 14 points and LaToya Josey chipped in with 11 to round out the scoring leaders for UAM.

“The minimum amount of minutes for any of our girls tonight was 18,” Ratcliff said. “So our kids got a lot of work.

“You just want to make sure nobody gets hurt, you work on some things and get better at some things in a game like this. And I thought we did that tonight.”

The game itself was pretty much over before it began. UAM jumped out to an 18-0 lead and never looked back, racing to a 51-22 advantage by halftime. The Blossoms’ lead swelled to as many as 50 points (85-35) on a pair of Thompson free throws with 8:24 left in the game.

The Lady Mustangs had scoring droughts of 7:55 and 4:13, committed 14 turnovers and made just six of their 30 field-goal attempts for a 20 percent clip in the opening half.

UAM, on the other hand, sizzled from start to finish. The Blossoms shot 43 percent from the floor on the night and outrebounded Central Baptist 51-36. UAM outscored the Lady Mustangs 32-14 in the paint, 36-9 off turnovers, 13-0 in second-chance points and 16-0 on fast breaks.

“We pretty much owned the stat sheet tonight,” Ratcliff said. “You look across the board, and our numbers were good from pretty much every aspect of the game.

“The competition will get a lot tougher as we go, but I’m proud of the way our kids played tonight. They’ve been playing a lot in the last seven days, but they were ready to go in this one.”

It marked the second consecutive day Ratcliff and Co. have put a game to bed by halftime. UAM set a Gulf South Conference record with 21 three-pointers in a 114-44 win over Rhema (Okla.) Bible College on Monday. The Blossoms led 66-14 at the break in that game.

UAM will be back in action on Friday in the Ouachita Baptist Classic at Arkadelphia. The Blossoms will square off with Montevallo at 4 p.m. to open up the two-day classic.