UALR 49, SAN DIEGO STATE 43
SAN DIEGO -- First-year UALR coach Chris Beard was reading San Diego State's game notes on Saturday morning and he finally had to put them down.
"I was getting scared looking at them, all the records and streaks they had," Beard said.
In short, few teams come into Viejas Arena and beat the Aztecs.
The Trojans of the Sun Belt Conference bucked the trend, stunning the Aztecs 49-43. Josh Hagins made four consecutive shots in the final 2:45, including a long 3-pointer that he banked in, and finished with 14 points.
Beard said it's a big victory for the Trojans in large part because of the kind of program Steve Fisher has built in San Diego.
San Diego State had been 32-1 in its last 33 home games and 95-7 in its last 102 games at Viejas. It had won 27 straight non-conference home games against teams that were not ranked in The Associated Press Top 25
"I mean, San Diego State basketball is kind of one of the unknown secrets in college basketball," Beard said. "This is a dominant program; six straight NCAA tournaments, a Hall of Fame coach, players getting drafted. This is the kind of program we'd like to build in Little Rock. We have a lot of respect for the team that we fortunately beat tonight."
The Trojans (3-0) twice took 11-point leads in the first half and were more energetic than the Aztecs (2-2), who committed 16 turnovers and shot only 28.3 percent (13-for-46).
The Aztecs were left shaking their head.
"We came out with no energy," Dakarai Allen said. "We can't win like that."
Seniors Winston Shepard, Skylar Spencer and Angelo Chol were held scoreless.
Said Fisher: "16 turnovers in a low-possession game is a killer, and that was a huge, huge piece to the game. ... We had multiple plays that were either turnovers, hard shots or missed open shots."
The Aztecs seemed to have gotten the upper hand after Ben Perez hit his third 3-pointer of the second half for a 41-38 lead with 4:11 to go.
That's when Hagins started his run, making a baseline shot and then a long 3-pointer for a two-point lead with 2:06 to go. After SDSU's Jeremy Hemsley made a layup to tie it, Hagins made a 10-foot jumper and then a shot from just inside the arc for a 47-43 lead.
"I needed to come through for my team," Hagins said. "Toward the end, we just found a way. They got me the ball, cleared the lane and I had to make some plays."
When it was apparent the Trojans were going to win, they raised their arms and huddled near midcourt before Marcus Johnson Jr. made two free throws with six seconds left to seal it.
"We're a mid-major team. When we come to an environment like this it's exciting for us," Hagin said. "It's easy for us to have energy in that kind of situation. A lot of us don't play in too many games like that. It's not about the fans or anything like that. It's just playing in a tough game. Everybody wants to prove their point. That's what we did tonight."
Hemsley and Allen scored 11 points apiece for San Diego State.
After leading 26-19 at halftime, UALR went cold from the field in the second half, making only one field goal in the first 10 minutes, a 3-pointer by Hagins.
At one point in the second half, the Aztecs had made more free throws, nine, than field goals, seven.
The Trojans outhustled and outshot the Aztecs in twice taking leads of 11 points in the first half. The first was 19-8 after Maurius Hill made a 3-pointer and Lis Shoshi a jumper. The other was 24-13 after Hagins made a jumper in the key.
San Diego State was in the midst of going almost eight minutes without a field goal.
SOUTHLAND MEN
RUTGERS 87, CENTRAL ARKANSAS 84
PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Mike Williams scored a career-high 25 points, including five 3-pointers, and Deshawn Freeman scored a career-high 23 points with 10 rebounds to lead Rutgers past Central Arkansas.
Corey Sanders added 14 points for Rutgers (3-1) and D.J. Foreman, 10 with nine rebounds.
Jordan Howard scored 19 points while Derreck Brooks had 21 points and seven rebounds for Central Arkansas (0-3).
Central Arkansas lost its first two games of the season at Tulsa and at UMass by a combined 44 points. The Bears led the Scarlet Knights by as many as seven points in the first half and the game was tied at 38 at the half.
Up 83-81 with 20 seconds left, Foreman blocked Jordan Howards' layup and Corey Sanders iced the game with a pair of free throws on back-to-back possessions.
SOUTHLAND WOMEN
CENTRAL ARKANSAS 61, MURRAY STATE 51
MURRAY, Ky. -- Taylor Baudoin scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Raquel Logan had a career-high 10 points and 14 rebounds and Central Arkansas won its first road game of the year Saturday.
Cenral Arkansas (2-1) led for nearly 38 minutes, outscoring the Racers (2-2) 36-22 over the second and third quarters to build a 14-point lead going into the final quarters. After Murray State's Brianna Mullins closed ito to four points with one minute to play, she made four consecutive field goals to preserve the victory.
Central Arkansas held Murray State to 34 percent field-goal shooting while shooting 36.8 percent, but they were able to outscore the Racers 14-9 at the foul line and have a 17-4 advantage on second-chance points.
SUN BELT WOMEN
ARKANSAS STATE 67,
WICHITA STATE 40
JONESBORO — Arkansas State (2-0) outscored Wichita State (0-2) 17-6 in the third quarter to break open a 28-18 halftime lead on their way to the victory Saturday night at Convocation Center. After Brittany Martin made a layup at the 8:38 mark of the third quarter to close it to 28-20, the Red Wolves scored the next 13 points. Khadi Brown-Haywood started the rally with a jumper and a layup to make it 32-20. Amanda Lawson had a layup to make it 34-20 and Brittney Gill had a jumper to make it 36-20. Aundrea Gamble’s layup made it 38-20 and Jessica Flannery hit a three-pointer to make it 41-20. Ellie Lehne made a layup at the 4:34 mark for Wichita State to break the streak.
Flannery led the Red Wolves with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Amanda Lawson had 12 points and four rebounds. Gamble had 12 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists.
Sports on 11/22/2015