No. 23 Arkansas 66, Saint Louis 59

12/30/2006 6:49 PM

ST. LOUIS (AP) -Brittney Vaughn had 13 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds, and No. 23 Arkansas overcame an eight-point second-half deficit to defeat Saint Louis 66-59 on Saturday.

Lauren Ervin had 12 points and 14 rebounds and Sarah Pfeifer added 13 points for Arkansas (15-1), which has won eight straight and is off to the best start in school history. Arkansas has not lost since falling 94-69 to second ranked North Carolina on Nov. 26.

Theresa Lisch led Saint Louis (8-6) with 19 points and eight rebounds. Tyler McIlwraith had 14 points and 10 rebounds in the losing effort.

With her team trailing by eight points at 51-43 with less than 9:00 left, Ervin keyed a 12-0 run that put Arkansas back in control.

Ervin scored consecutive baskets inside to make it 51-47. After Donica Cosby hit a 3-pointer to cut the Saint Louis lead to one, Arkansas went inside again to Ervin. She was fouled by Maggie Hennegan and made both free throws to give Arkansas the lead at 52-51. The Lady Razorbacks never trailed after that.

Arkansas led 39-27 with 17:28 remaining after Dominique Washington drained a 3-pointer from the left of the key. But Saint Louis, which leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring with 75.1 points per game, went on a 14-2 run and tied the game on Hennegan's lay-up with 11:38 remaining.

After Tanisha Smith scored inside to make it 43-41 Arkansas, Lisch scored seven straight points to give Saint Louis a 48-43 lead. A 3-pointer by Katie Paganelli gave Saint Louis its biggest advantage with 8:49 remaining.

Saint Louis never had led in the first half, but kept the game close.

Arkansas got a boost offensively from Pfeifer, who scored a team-high eight first-half points off the bench. Pfeifer capped the scoring with a jumper with 22 seconds left before halftime to give Arkansas its biggest lead at 34-20.