MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama women's basketball faces Little Rock at home on Thursday at 5:00 p.m.  The game is part of a doubleheader with the men's teams squaring off afterwards.

Fans can watch the game through USAJaguars.com, listen at http://995thejag.com/listen or get updates on Twitter (@SouthALWBB) or live stats via USAJaguars.com.

The meeting between South Alabama and Little Rock will mark the 27th in the all-time series between the two clubs.  The Trojans hold a 14-12 record in the series and won a matchup against the Jags this season 71-54 at home on Jan. 21st.  Little Rock swept last year's series and has won four-straight against South Alabama.  The Jaguars last win against the Trojans was a 61-56 victory in the Mitchell Center on Feb. 1, 2014 and broke a seven-game losing streak against the Trojans.  Fourth-year South Alabama head coach Terry Fowler is 1-6 against the Trojans while 14th-year Little Rock head coach Joe Foley is 14-7 against the Jags.

South Alabama fell 53-41 at Texas-Arlington on Saturday in its last road game of the year.  The Mavericks led for almost the entire game and pulled away from the Jaguars in the third quarter with a 15-2 run that lasted over six minutes.  The Jags were held to single-digits in two quarters, including the third as the Mavs outscored them 17-6. South Alabama was just 1-11 from the field and made all four three throw attempts in the quarter, and all six points were scored by Colby Davis.  South Alabama held Texas-Arlington to just five points in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough for a comeback attempt as the Jags scored only 10 points in the quarter.

The Jags held the Mavs to 35.6% (16-45) shooting from the field and 23.8% (5-21) from the three, but Texas-Arlington was near-perfect from the charity stripe with just one miss in 17 attempts (94.1%).  South Alabama was 23.5% (12-51) from the field, 18.8% (3-16) from three and 66.7% (14-21) from the line.  South Alabama finished with a slight edge on the glass (38-34) that included a 15-6 advantage in offensive rebounds, but it only led to six second chance points.  Texas-Arlington won the turnover battle (21-17), which led to 12 steals and an edge in fast break points (6-0) and points off turnovers (19-9) for the Mavs.

Davis scored a game-high 16 points, was perfect from the free throw line (8-8) and also had five rebounds and an assist.  Erin Autio scored eight points off the bench by going 3-4 from the field and had three rebounds, and Chyna Ellis recorded seven points, seven rebounds and a block, assist and steal.

Ellis became the schools' all-time leader in career blocks after recording a game-high and season-high six rejections three games ago against Coastal Carolina that gave her 212 career rejections, passing LaSandra Jenkins' (1982-85) 210 blocks.  With one block at Texas-Arlington she moved into third place among all-time career rejections in the Sun Belt Conference.  She needs just 64 more blocks to become the all-time leader in blocks for the conference.

She enters the game averaging 3.0 rejections per game that tops the Sun Belt and ranks eighth in the NCAA.  She has recorded a block in each game played this season and is 14th in the nation and first in the conference in total blocked shots (78).  Her total number of blocks this season are more than five of the schools in the conference have as a team, and her average rejections per game is greater than six teams' average.

She already has the third-most blocks in a season in program history. With her five rejections against Coastal Carolina, she moved ahead of Delk's 2004 total of 65 and surpassed Jenkins' 1984 total of 62 with two rejections at Louisiana-Monroe.  Previously she tied Adrian Vickers' 1990 total with four blocks at Louisiana-Lafayette and surpassed her freshman total of 56 with two blocks at Troy.  She is also on pace for 87 rejections this season, which would surpass her blocked shot total (82) from last year and Jenkins'  single-season blocks record (86 rejections) set in 1983.

Little Rock (21-7, 15-1) enters the game with a three-game winning streak, and beat the two Georgia Sun Belt schools at home last weekend.  With a 15-1 record in the Sun Belt Conference, Little Rock clinched the regular season conference championship with a 52-45 win over Georgia State last Saturday for its second league title in the past three years.

The Trojans led the league in several categories:  scoring defense (54.3 ppg), free throw percentage (75.4%), field goal percentage (42.4%) and defensive rebounding percentage (72.1%).  Little Rock doesn't shoot from three that often.  The Trojans rank last in three's made (2.9 per game) and attempted (10.5 per game) and shoot 28.0% from deep.  With 293 total attempts from three, Little Rock is the only team to shot less than 350 three-point attempts in the conference.

 Senior Sharde' Collins, junior Monique Townson and freshman Kyra Collier form one of the top backcourts in the conference.  Collins has been one of the top offensive players in the league, ranking sixth in scoring (14.7 ppg), 10th in three's made (1.5 per game) and 11th in three-point field goal percentage (32.8%).  Townson has been an effective and efficient guard all season, ranking in the conference first in assists (4.1 apg) and free throw percentage (87.3%), second in minutes played (36.3 mpg), fifth in assist/turnover ratio (1.3) and 11th in steals (1.6 spg).  Collier ranks second in defensive rebounds (5.7 per game), third in assist/turnover ratio (1.5), tied for fourth in steals (2.0 spg), fifth in assists (3.6 apg), seventh in rebounding (7.0 rpg) and eighth in free throw percentage (78.9%).

Senior forward Kaitlyn Pratt has also been an impact player on the offensive end and is fourth in field goal percentage (52.1%), seventh in scoring (14.3 ppg), 10th in free throw percentage (77.1%) and offensive rebounds (2.8 per game) and 13th in rebounding (6.4 rpg).

The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled for a week of March Madness in the Big Easy.  New Orleans will once again be home to the two championships that will take place at Lakefront Arena from March 7-12 and ticket books can now be purchased from your our ticket office.  For more information, visit the Sun Belt Conference's championship central websites - Men's Championship – Women's Championship – and be sure to follow the @FunBelt on social media - @SunBelt.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the Hardwood Club, the women's basketball specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All gifts to the Hardwood Club go directly to support the South Alabama women's basketball program. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/sports/2013/3/13/Hardwood%20Club.aspx?id=28