JONESBORO - Arkansas State struggled to pull away from Lyon College early in its final nonconference game of the season Tuesday night, but the Red Wolves didn’t have any trouble in the second half of a 65-39 victory at the Convocation Center.
ASU (17-9) outscored Lyon 17-3 over the first 13:25 of the second half after leading 31-24 at halftime in a game originally scheduled for Feb. 4 but was postponed because of inclement weather.
The Scots (14-15) missed 15 of their first 16 shots of the second half as ASU turned a close game into a runaway.
Brandon Reed scored 13 of his team-high 16 points in the first half, while Ed Townsel added 14 points and Kendrick Washington and Kirk Van Slyke had 11 points each for ASU.
Riley Jenkins led Lyon with 15 points, making 5 of 10 three-pointers, but nobody else had more than seven points while Lyon was held to 35.7 percent shooting and had 16 turnovers.
ASU took a 7-2 lead on a layup by Townsel with 17:42 left in the first half, but Lyon tied the game at 8-8 on Jenkins’ three-pointer two minutes later. Lyon led three times in the first half, the last of which came on Gijanicic Filip’s layup that made it 21-19 with 9:01 left.
ASU responded with a 12-0 run that made it 31-21 on a three-pointer by Reed and never trailed again.
Sports, Pages 22 on 02/26/2014