NEW ORLEANS -- The Sun Belt Conference Tournament semifinal between the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Troy is polarizing.
It's the yin and yang of basketball philosophy, where the only similarity between the two teams is their mascot: Trojans.
The UALR Trojans dominate their opponents with defense, suppressing them with one-on-one matchups that turn rebounds and steals into fastbreak layups and jump shots.
The Troy Trojans overwhelm their opponents with offense, flooding it with dozens of threes and twos that can flicker a scoreboard to as much as 130 points -- as Troy did in a 130-50 victory over Montevallo on Dec. 9.
No. 1-seeded UALR (21-9, 17-1 Sun Belt) and No. 4-seeded Troy (18-12, 12-6) are the only programs to have won the Sun Belt Tournament in the past three seasons, and when the Trojans meet at 5 p.m. today at Lakefront Arena, UALR will face the only team it didn't beat during the conference season.
Troy defeated UALR 76-70 in overtime at home on Feb. 10 during the team's only meeting this season.
"I think this time, we're going to be a lot more focused, ready to go," said UALR senior guard Monique Townson, who scored a game-high 14 points with 7 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists in UALR's 66-34 quarterfinals victory over Appalachian State on Thursday. "There's a chip on our shoulders. This is just an obstacle."
Townson was a part of the UALR team that lost to Troy 61-60 in the 2016 Sun Belt championship game, when Townson's layup was blocked just before the final buzzer.
UALR has a 9-5 record over Troy since the 2012-2013 season, back when Troy Coach Chanda Rigby brought her high-scoring style to Alabama after spending seven seasons at Pensacola State, a junior college in Texas.
Rigby, like 15-year UALR Coach Joe Foley, had crafted her philosophy in the lower divisions of college basketball.
Foley had won two NAIA national championships at Arkansas Tech University by stifling opponents with one-on-one defense. Rigby went 64-6 in her final two seasons at Pensacola State, which included two trips to the NJCAA Final Four.
"When I got to Troy, my first Division I gig, my colleagues would call, one by one: 'Congrats, but you know you're going to have to do something different than Pensacola,' " Rigby said. "And I said, 'OK.' Well, my first year at Troy, I tried to be a different coach. Slow the ball up. Be smarter."
Troy went 7-24 in her first season but still led the league with 70.2 points per game.
"The next season, I just went back to what I do: outscore the opponent," she said.
Troy has led the Sun Belt in scoring offense in every season since, winning the past two Sun Belt Tournaments, and its 82.5 points per game this season ranks ninth in the nation.
UALR has led the Sun Belt in scoring defense every year since Rigby arrived at Troy, and its 52.3 points allowed per game this season ranks sixth in the nation.
Rigby said UALR plays "the exact opposite of how we want to be played." She said her goal is to score 120 points in a game. In practice, she runs a drill where her players must score 15 points in five minutes. If the goal is not met, the players run.
UALR sometimes does not score 120 points in two games combined, and it held Appalachian State under 15 points during the first half Thursday.
Foley said the defensive philosophy is about disruption.
"A team that's used to running up and down the floor, they're used to getting a lot of touches," Foley said. "So, if you do make a mistake, it's not going to kill you. You know you're going to get a lot of shots. Against us, you know you aren't going to get a lot of shots. So, we're usually good at defensive rebounding. So, if you do take a bad shot, we're going to make you pay for it."
It's what happened to Troy in its 82-79 quarterfinals victory over South Alabama on Thursday, when it narrowly won after finishing the game 1-of-12 shooting.
"We're talking about it already," Rigby said. "We can't have scoring droughts. Somebody's going to have to step up when that happens. Just work to impose our will."
The victor, Townson said, will be which team's philosophy can withstand a breakdown.
"Whoever is going to execute best on each side of the floor is going to win," Townson said.
Sports on 03/10/2018