LITTLE ROCK — Bails back to form for UALR
It’s a rare sight to see a big man eager to run sprints, but UALR forward Derrick Bails tossed that archetype aside at the conclusion of Monday’s practice at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
A grin spreading across his face, the redshirt senior bolted from the baseline on the heels of freshman frontcourt mate Gus Leeper.
The Little Rock native raised his arms above his shoulders, running his fingers through a low-hanging net along the sideline.
“I’m coming for you,” said Bails, bearing down on Leeper as the final seconds ticked off the timed run. “I got you.”
Bails, a 6-9 Ripley, Miss., native, is fresh off his best performance of the year in Friday’s victory over Louisiana Tech, scoring 11 points on 3 of 4 shooting and reaching the free throw line 8 times in a season-high 15 minutes. It was Bails’ fourth game back from a two-game suspension for missing curfew before the season opener at SMU.
“I had to stay focused, just keep working,” Bails said of his time on the bench. “I tried to keep my mind in the right place, but it’s hard because I was so angry at myself. It was my fault, and I knew it.”
In his first three games back, Bails didn’t score and went 0 of 5 from the floor and 0 for 2 from the free throw line.
“My first game back, I had only one day of practice,” he said. “I had to get into rhythm, get back into my shot.”
To do that, Bails and senior guard Soloman Bozeman, who leads the Trojans at 15.2 points a game, put up roughly 200 shots after practice. During those sessions, Bails told Bozeman it was just a matter of time before his stroke returned.
That moment came a minute into the second half of the Trojans’ comeback victory against the Bulldogs.
Bails knocked down a 15-foot jumper from the elbow, his first field goal of the season.
“I was telling everyone that I was back,” he said.
“My first jumper, I knew it was going in as soon as it left my fingers.”Lost touch
One Trojan still hunting for his shooting touch is senior guard Matt Mouzy.
In the past three seasons, the former walk-on became one of UALR’s more reliable perimeter threats, hitting 39.1 percent of his three-point tries.
Through six games, Mouzy, who is sixth all-time in school history in made three-pointers, is hitting only 24.1 percent of long-range tries, including a 1-of-10 stretch in games against Oral Roberts and Louisiana Tech.
“On a lot of shots, when I watch on film, I’m shooting it a little bit flat,” he said.
“It’s more of a line drive than an arc.”
The culprit appears to be sapped leg strength following a summer in a boot and on crutches after foot surgery for a stress fracture in June.
The procedure forced the 6-0 wing player to miss offseason conditioning work and kept him from lofting jumpers to maintain his form and rhythm.
“He didn’t have the summer at all,” Shields said.
“I just think it’s going to take time.”
The boot came off in September, several weeks before the Trojans opened preseason camp, and Mouzy isn’t blaming it for his inaccuracy.
“I’ve never been a guy to make excuses,” he said. “If I miss a shot, it’s me. It’s my mistake.”
And for Shields, he knows there’s little he can do to speed up the process.
“My big key with Matt right now is to focus on good shots and on the defensive end of the floor,” Shields said. “Those are things we can control, and he’ll get to the point where he’s making shots.” Sitting Reed
UALR women’s Coach Joe Foley has said his team needs to improve its scoring by players other than leading scorer Chastity Reed.
Against Louisiana Tech, Reed, who is averaging 21.8 points, sat the opening five minutes in a move by Foley to stir production among the rest of his roster. Ultimately, the 6-0 forward came on to score 21 points, including 13 consecutive in the final 10 minutes to seal the victory.
On Saturday, though, Reed, a preseason All-American and candidate for the Wooden Award for player of the year, did not play in the Trojans’ 51-48 victory.
Foley wouldn’t say why he made the move.
“It was Coach’s decision,” said Brandy Sweeden, a spokesman for the UALR women’s basketball team.
“That’s all I know.”
Sports, Pages 22 on 11/30/2010