LITTLE ROCK — The UALR men’s basketball team entered its final weekend of the Sun Belt regular season slogging to the finish line. The Trojans looked plenty energized most of Thursday night.
UALR put together one of its best six-minute stretches in more than a month to build a 14-point first-half lead, then held off a late Louisiana-Lafayette rally for a 77-68 victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,577 at the Jack Stephens Center.
The victory kept alive UALR’s chance of a first round bye in next week’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Hot Springs and ended a four-game losing skid heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale against Arkansas State.
“The key thing is focusing on playing the right way,” UALR Coach Steve Shields said. “I thought tonight, for the most part, we played the right way. We didn’t care who got shots.”
Shields’ use of “for the most part” was the caveat.
UALR shot 49 percent from the floor, the second time it’s shot that well in the past 11 games, and got 10 or more points from five players.
The Trojans outscored the Cajuns 15-2 during a six-minute stretch of the first half - when five different players scored - and turned a 17-15 deficit into a 33-19 lead.
The Trojans (16-14, 10-9) never trailed after that run, and Louisiana-Lafayette (11-19,7-12) only got as close as 62-58 with 5:30 left.
But Will Neighbour hit a three-pointer, Ben Dillard followed with two free throws and the Ragin’ Cajuns never got that close again.
“Moving the ball pretty well, being more aggressive,” said Neighbour, who had a team-high 17 points and 11 rebounds. “It’s just easy buckets. Just want to keep doing that and hopefully we carry that over to the tournament.”
Josh Hagins scored 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting, John Gillon and Dillard each had 13 and Leroy Isler had 10 for a team that had shot 34 percent during four consecutive losses since Feb. 14.
But UALR also had 18 turnovers that led to 23 Louisiana-Lafayette points that kept the Trojans from completely running away for their first victory since Feb. 7.
Three of those turnovers came over a three-minute stretch in the second half that helped Louisiana-Lafayette cut a 10-point UALR lead to four points late in the game.
“We definitely need to take care of the ball,” said Gillon, who had five assists but also four turnovers. “I know I had some key turnovers. That definitely affects the game.”
Elfrid Payton almost made UALR pay.
Payton, who had scored 54 points over his past two games, was held to four points and took only two shots in the first half Thursday. But he finished with 17 points and eight assists, while scoring in transition or finding forward Shawn Long, who had 19 points, or guard Alan-Michael Thompson, who had 17.
“We went into halftime and we challenged him [Payton],” Ragin’ Cajuns Coach Bob Marlin said. “He usually brings our energy. He’s hard to guard, but Little Rock challenged him tonight.” Can the Trojans, who can earn as high as the No. 4 seed, keep it going?
“We’ll find out Saturday night,” Shields said. “... I think that’s partly been the trademark for our young team. We play in spurts, and we’ve got to become more consistent.”
NORTH TEXAS 74, ARKANSAS STATE 50
Four of North Texas’ starters scored at least 10 points each as the Mean Green ended Arkansas State’s four-game winning streak with a victory at The Super Pit in Denton, Texas.
Alzee Williams scored 19 points as North Texas shot 43 percent from the floor. Jordan Williams added 16 points for the Mean Green, while Roger Franklin added 12 and Tony Mitchell had 10.
Marcus Hooten had a season-high 18 points for ASU (18-10, 12-7 SBC). Ed Townsel came off the bench to score 14 points and was the only other Red Wolf with at least 10 points.
“We came out flat, and we were poor in every aspect of the game,” ASU Coach John Brady. “We didn’t have the edge and it showed in a big way. We were lucky to not get beat by more than we did.”
The Red Wolves, who were held to a season-low 25 percent shooting (17 of 68) and made just 1 of 23 from behind the three-point line.
SWAC MEN UAPB 78, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ST. 70
ITTA BENA, Miss. - Tevin Hammond scored six of his 13 points in overtime on free throws as Arkansas-Pine Bluff downed Mississippi Valley State in the teams’ regular-season finale.
The victory was the Golden Lions’ fourth consecutive - Hammond hit a game-winning three-pointer as UAPB defeated Jackson State 73-72 on Feb. 25.
The Golden Lions (16-14, 15-3) trailed 65-62 after Mississippi Valley State’s Cortland Henry’s free throw with seven seconds left in regulation, but UAPB’s Terrell Kennedy made a buzzer-beating three-pointer to force overtime.
Kennedy and Davon Haynes had 15 points each to lead UAPB.
The teams exchanged the lead 14 times, including seven times in the final 10 minutes of regulation.
Davon Usher led the Delta Devils (5-23, 5-13) with 17 points, and Darryl Marshall and Marcus Johnson each added 12.
Mississippi Valley state shot just 31 percent (18 of 58), including 8 of 33 from three-point range.
SWAC WOMEN ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 63, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ST. 51
ITTA BENA, Miss. - Arkansas-Pine Bluff gave its coach, Nate Kilbert, a victory over his former team, Mississippi Valley State in the final game of the regular season.
The Lady Lions (11-17, 7-11 Southwestern Athletic Conference) outscored Mississippi Valley State 38-29 in the second half and limited the Devilettes (15-4, 12-6) to just 35.6 percent shooting at the Harrison HPER Complex.
Jenise Gentry, who made 10 of 12 free throws, led the Lady Lions with 16 points. Khristina Clemons led Mississippi Valley State with 21 points.
THURSDAY’S GAMES UALR 77, La.-Lafayette 68 North Texas 74, Arkansas State 50 W. Kentucky 79, South Alabama 73 Fla. International 67, La.-Monroe 58 Middle Tennessee 66, Troy 56
Sports, Pages 19 on 03/01/2013