Trojans grind it out, falter in OT

Trojan basketball players Taylor Ford, Ben Dillard and Hannah Fohne cq at SpectacUALR, a fundraiser for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's  Trojan Athletics, Oct. 10 in the university's Jack Stephens Center.
Trojan basketball players Taylor Ford, Ben Dillard and Hannah Fohne cq at SpectacUALR, a fundraiser for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Trojan Athletics, Oct. 10 in the university's Jack Stephens Center.

The UALR men's basketball team used defense to grind its way back from a deficit Sunday afternoon at the Jack Stephens Center.

But after James White's putback forced overtime, the Trojans couldn't complete an offensive possession and Kent State survived for a 60-55 overtime victory in front of an announced crowd of 1,018 at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

"They start overtime with a three, then you're playing catch-up from there on out," said UALR Coach Steve Shields, whose team lost its third consecutive game.

UALR (4-4), which played from behind for more than 29 minutes Sunday, caught up to Kent State (6-2) but couldn't get by it.

White's tip-in tied the game at 51-51 at the end of the regulation, but Kent State's Derek Jackson started overtime with a three, and White's putback made it 54-53 with 4:17.

UALR's next five possessions produced four turnovers and a missed layup, and Kent State slowly pulled away.

UALR finished the overtime making 2 of 8 from the floor and 4 turnovers; Kent State was 3 of 4 and scored 5 points off turnovers in overtime.

"We just had a few possessions here and there that just didn't go our way," guard Ben Dillard said. "Ball went out of bounds, little stuff that didn't go our way."

One of Josh Hagins' two turnovers during the stretch was followed by Jimmy Hall's three-point play and the Golden Flashes sealed victory in a game in which they held the Trojans to 21 points below their season average.

UALR held Kent State to 26.9 percent second-half shooting, and forced 16 turnovers for the game, helping compensate for Kent State's 43.3 percent first-half shooting and a 42-34 rebounding margin.

There wasn't much defense played on either side in the first half, which ended with Kent State leading 35-32.

Kent State entered shooting 41 percent from three-point range, a statistic that alarmed Shields considering his team came into the game allowing opponents to shoot 43 percent. The first 20 minutes went parallel to those statistics.

Devareuax Manley made three three-pointers, while Kris Brewer made two and Derek Jackson made another as the Golden Flashes made 6 of their first 7 from three-point range. Manley's final three came with 8:06 left as Kent State was outscoring UALR 16-2 to take a 25-19 lead.

UALR didn't allow another three-pointer in the half, though, and Kent State finished the game 8 of 20 .

"We just tried to run them out," forward Roger Woods said. "Make them drive and make them uncomfortable shooting threes."

Woods led UALR with 12 points, while Dillard had 11 and White had 11 points and 7 rebounds despite being limited to 29 minutes because of foul trouble. White sat for almost seven minutes after picking up his second foul, and Kent State outscored UALR 16-5 with White on the bench.

"It hurts us," Shields said. "There's no way you're going to take a guy who has put up the kind of numbers he's put up and say it doesn't hurt us."

UALR stayed in the game by doing a better job defending three-pointers and closing the rebounding disparity.

The Trojans outscored the Golden Flashes 8-0, including a Hagins layup, to take a 40-39 lead. The Trojans led 45-41 after White's free throws with 9:21 left, but then went more than four minute without scoring as Kent State outscored UALR 10-0 to retake the lead at 51-45.

UALR didn't allow a point in the final six minutes of regulation. Woods scored inside, then made two free throws to make it 51-49. Woods missed inside and White's tip-in with 1:14 left tied it at 51-51 -- UALR's first points off an offensive rebound.

Its inability to even get off shots in overtime cost UALR what might be considered a quality victory over an opponent from the Mid-American Conference, and it is the type of game it will likely see in the Sun Belt Conference -- ugly and defensive oriented.

"You've got to be able to do that," Shields said. "That's what conference games are about. They're grind-out games where everybody knows everybody. We knew this game was going to be this way coming in."

Sports on 12/15/2014

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