Trojans hold off Hurricane rally

Before UALR tipped off against Tulsa, they hung banners at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

They also let the Golden Hurricane hang around.

UALR (6-2) jumped out to a 14-point halftime lead, watched Tulsa cut that to four in the second half and then hung on for a 72-62 victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,769 Saturday.

UALR hung banners for their 2015-2016 Sun Belt conference championship, school-record 30 victories and their opening-round NCAA Tournament victory over Purdue.

None of that meant much to Tulsa.

The Hurricane jumped out to a 27-18 lead in the first half, on the strength of hitting eight of their first 11 shots. In the second half, they came out on fire again, hitting six of their first nine shots.

“[Tulsa Coach] Frank Haith does a great job,” UALR Coach Wes Flanigan said. “He’s been in the postseason something like 10 of the 11 years he’s been a head coach.”

UALR’s Marcus Johnson led the way for the Trojans with 16 points, but he fed off the energy that the Trojans got on the other end of the court.

“When we got down, we just knew that we had to make a couple of stops, and that’s what we did,” Johnson said.

It took the Trojans nearly 15 minutes to take their first lead of the game. After trailing by as many as nine in the first half, UALR went on a 11-0 run to go ahead 28-27 with 5:10 left.

On the next possession, Johnson hit a deep three from the left wing and was part of a 27-4 run to close out the first half for a 45-31 lead. The real key moment of the run, though, came on a breakaway dunk by freshman Andre Jones.

Jones picked off an inbounds pass from Tulsa’s Corey Henderson under the Tulsa basket and then went the length of the court for the emphatic dunk.

“That dunk really seemed to get the crowd back into it,” UALR senior forward Lis Soshi said.

After watching their lead dwindle to just four at 56-52 with 9:47 remaining in the game, the Trojans went on a 9-2 run to put the game away.

Soshi finished with a 15 points for the Trojans.

Jaleel Wheeler led Tulsa with a game-high 17 points, followed by teammates Will Magnay and Henderson, who finished with 13 and 10, respectively. Former Pulaski Academy standout Lawson Korita finished with 2 points for the Hurricane.

TCU 77, ARKANSAS STATE 54

TCU (8-0) closed the game on a 16-0 run and defeated Arkansas State (7-2) in a non-conference contest at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth.

The Red Wolves trailed 30-29 at halftime but grabbed the lead on Devin Carter’s layup coming out of intermission. The Horned Frogs slowly took the lead to 46-37 before the Red Wolves got to within 61-54 on Carter’s three-pointer with 4:32 remaining.

ASU was 0 for 8 from the field down the stretch.

Carter led all scorers with 22 points which included 5 of 11 three-pointers. C.J. Foster added 13 for the Red Wolves.

NO. 18 BUTLER 82,

CENTRAL ARKANSAS 58

INDIANAPOLIS — Kelan Martin finished with 30 points and six rebounds, and Tyler Wideman added 10 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 18 Butler beat Central Arkansas.

The Bulldogs (8-0), who never trailed, scored 24 points off 16 Central Arkansas turnovers. The Bulldogs scored nearly half their points down low, finishing with 32 in the lane. Butler capitalized on 10 offensive rebounds by finishing with 16 second-chance points.

The Bulldogs’ largest lead was 25 points with 4:58 left to play. Butler’s offense relied on ball movement as 22 of its 31 field goals came by way of an assist.

Jordan Howard led Central Arkansas (1-7) with 20 points and Derreck Brooks finished with 15.

“We’re trying to measure ourselves against really good teams and get better,” Central Arkansas Coach Russ Pennell said. “When we play teams like Butler, and we’re going to be playing Michigan soon, it’s a chance to measure ourselves and our [players].”

CENTRAL MICHIGAN 82,

ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 59

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Marcus Keene drilled eight three-pointers for 31 points and Central Michigan ran away from Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-7) in the second half to earn a victory Saturday. It was Keene’s fourth consecutive game with 30-plus points, and his eight threes ties him for fourth most in school history for a single game, tying John Simons, Jeff Majerle and Tommie Johnson. Cecil Williams and Josh Kozinski each finished with 11 points for the Chippewas (7-2).

Sports on 12/04/2016

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