The UALR men's basketball team went into Boone, N.C. on Thursday night coming off a victory.
For the first time this season in its Sun Belt Conference schedule, the Trojans followed it with another.
Josh Hagins scored 14 points off the bench, James Reid scored 13 and UALR beat Appalachian State 79-74.
The victory came five days after a home victory over Texas State and at a crucial time, considering it's clinging to a record good enough for it to qualify for the Sun Belt Tournament with six games remaining.
"I thought we moved the ball extremely well after a slow start," UALR Coach Steve Shields said. "We were a little impatient early, but this team has showed some resiliency and we played with a little more urgency."
Hagins made 6 of 12 shots form the floor and also had six assists for the Trojans, while Reid made 2 of 3 three-pointers. Maurius Hill added 12 points on 4 of 8 shooting, while Ben Dillard added 11 points and Roger Woods scored nine for the balanced Trojans.
UALR held Appalachian State leading scorer Frank Eaves to nine points, eight below his average, but Chris Burgess had 24 points, Jake Babic had 13 and Tommy Spagnolo had 12.
Appalachian Stat led by as much as 32-24 in the first half, but Hill made a jumper that sparked a 9-0 run to go up 33-32 with 2:45 in the half. Mareik Isom's layup in the final minute then tied it at 37-37 at halftime.
Neither team led by more than two points for the first eight minutes of the second half, when a jumper by Dillard gave UALR a 50-47 lead with 11:36 left. UALR trailed for only 18 seconds the rest of the game and finally pulled away with an 8-2 run to go up 68-60 with 3:12 left.
UALR shot 58 percent from the floor and held a rebounding advantage (33-29) for the second game in a row.
UALR is alone in eight-place in the Sun Belt standings with six games remaining.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 65, ARKANSAS STATE 60
Georgia Southern won the battle inside and handed Arkansas State its fourth consecutive loss Thursday night.
Jelani Hewitt led Georgia Southern with 15 points, and the Eagles outscored the Red Wolves 34-28 in the paint. It was the Red Wolves' fourth consecutive loss, the second time this season they've lost that many in a row.
Nouhoum Bocoum led ASU (9-14, 4-10) with 18 points, Anthony Livingston added 16 and Sean Gardner scored 10 points. Six players scored for the Red Wolves, but ASU reserves scored only two points.
ASU stayed with the second-place Sun Belt team the whole game. The Red Wolves led 14-9 eight minutes into the game and 21-19 with 7:23 left before halftime. But Georgia Southern (17-5, 10-3) took a 31-27 lead into halftime and ASU was never able to get closer than 37-33 in the second half.
Sports on 02/13/2015