LITTLE ROCK — The UALR men’s basketball season is less than two weeks old, but Taggart Lockhart has already seen his role shift a bit.
The sophomore guard was in the Trojans’ starting lineup for the first two games of the season, but he’s started the past three on the bench and wasn’t a factor in Monday’s victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
He came off the bench again Wednesday night against Jacksonville at the Jack Stephens Center, but this time he made an impact. Lockhart hit 4 of 7 shots and scored nine firsthalf points to help UALR take a 15-point into halftime, and the Trojans held off a secondhalf rally to beat the Dolphins 78-56.
“They might have forgot about me,” Lockhart said of Jacksonville. “I came out feeling good, and I got some shots and got them to fall.”
Lockhart, one of two UALR guards who started the season with NCAA Division I experience, was averaging 10 points and 6 rebounds after starting the Trojans’ first two games, but he came off the bench Nov. 16 at Mississippi, went 0 of 7 from the field and didn’t score. He then scored just one point in nine minutes after getting into foul trouble early in the second half of Monday’s victory.
Lockhart entered 7 minutes into the first half Wednesday and scored nine points over a span of 2 minutes, 19 seconds. His three-pointer with 8:58 left gave UALR a 28-17 lead and came in the middle of a 12-3 run.
He added a layup while Jacksonville (2-3) was mounting a rally in the second half, and his three-point play with 7:06 pushed UALR’s lead to 63-53 and it never was fewer than 10 the rest of the game.
Lockhart finished with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Freshman guard John Gillon led UALR with 16 points in 32 minutes, the second-most on the team Wednesday and the most he’s played since a season-opening victory over Tennessee-Martin on Nov. 9.
Will Neighbour added 15 points Wednesday, James White added 13 points and eight rebounds and Leroy Isler had 10 rebounds in his second start.
“It’s a different guy every night,” UALR Coach Steve Shields said. “I think that’s what depth is about, and this team has more depth than we had last year.”
The Dolphins, who lost at Miami on Nov. 16 but won at Missouri State on Monday, cut what was once a 15-point UALR lead to six points three different times during Wednesday’s second half. The last came with 12:35 left when Tyler Alderman’s two free throws made it 50-44.
Sports, Pages 34 on 11/22/2012