The UALR men’s basketball team has been the sum of its parts this season, racing to a 15-2 start with a rotation consisting of nine players averaging 16 minutes per game or more.
But Trojans Coach Chris Beard has stayed with the same starting lineup for 16 of those games. Could it finally change tonight at Texas State after UALR’s first Sun Belt loss? Beard indicated after Monday’s loss at Arkansas State that it might.
“I don’t know, but that’s a fair question,” Beard said after UALR’s 76-73 loss at the Convocation Center in Jonesboro. “We’ll have to get back and study the tape. But, it’s a team sport, and it wasn’t any individual players’ fault.”
UALR started, like usual, with guards Josh Hagins, Jermaine Ruttley, Kemy Osee, and forwards Maurius Hill and Lis Shoshi against the Red Wolves. UALR was already into its rotation by the time ASU started pulling away, but trailing 48-30 at halftime, Beard switched things up.
For the first time in six Sun Belt games, Beard changed his second-half starters from who started the game. Out were Ruttley and Hill and in were Marcus Johnson Jr. and Roger Woods. That group helped the Trojans get back into the game, scoring eight points before the first timeout and 11 consecutive to start the second half to spark a rally. UALR eventually got to within 74-73 in the final minutes.
Beard said he liked the group’s intensity.
“They did a good job of getting us back into the game,” he said.
ASU MEN
Give them a rest
Arkansas State (9-8, 5-1) is a surprise team at the top of the Sun Belt standings, partially because of its diminishing roster.
Three players have left the team since October, and another has undergone season-ending knee surgery. That led to three players logging 32 minutes or more — Anthony Livingston and Donte Thomas each played 39 — in Monday’s victory over UALR in which the Red Wolves had essentially six players available.
ASU Coach John Brady said forward Charles Waters is over an illness that limited him to four minutes in Saturday night’s loss to Appalachian State, which is good news since the Red Wolves have used seven scholarship players the past three games.
Brady said after Monday night’s victory that he was going to give his players some breaks heading into tonight’s game at Texas-Arlington.
“We’ve got to be careful with what we do to rest our players to get our legs back,” Brady said. “We’ll probably just do some shooting, some talking, some walk through, just make sure our guys get the rest that’s necessary to play a quality game on Thursday night.”
UALR WOMEN
Guard help
UALR challenged Arkansas State on Monday by going through its experienced forwards. Kaitlyn Pratt had a careerhigh 21 points and Shanity James had 20 points in the 66-53 loss.
That was how Coach Joe Foley thought UALR had to play to beat ASU, which is the lone Sun Belt team yet to lose a conference game. But, Foley would still like more out of his guards. Alexius Dawn, Sharde’ Collins, Monique Townson — the guards who played the most Monday — were a combined 3 of 21 from the floor for 8 points.
“I thought we would have played a little bit better out of the guard spot,” Foley said. “If our post players are getting better, that’s got to be one of our strengths. If they keep improving and the guards come around, we might be pretty solid by the end of the year.”
UALR MEN
Green returns
It was just three minutes of Monday night’s game but could turn into a boon for UALR’s depth inside.
Senior forward Daniel Green played for the first time since Nov. 28 in UALR’s loss at Arkansas State. Green, a 6-10 forward who transferred to UALR for his final season from Wake Forest, entered with about five minutes left in the first half and played three minutes. He didn’t record a point or a rebound, and ASU went on a 14-4 run while he was on the floor, but Coach Chris Beard said last week he was eager to get him back.
Green hadn’t played since a Nov. 28 victory at Tulsa while recovering from a knee scope. It’s a similar injury that cost him almost two full seasons at Wake Forest.
Green is averaging 0.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 7.8 minutes in 6 games this season.