Catching the ball at the opposite free-throw line, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville's Ray'Sean Taylor turned, took one dribble and heaved, not yet having stepped on the oversized Trojan head at center court.
From 70-plus feet, the ball was always tracking for the hoop. It was just a matter of whether it would go down.
Taylor's desperation attempt at the horn Saturday afternoon kissed off the back iron and through the bottom of the net, lifting the Cougars to an 84-81 win against the University of Arkansas-Little Rock men at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
The Trojans had come all the way back from down 15 points in the second half, tying the score at 81-81 on two free throws by C.J. White with 2.1 seconds to play. But UALR's late charge proved to be of little consolation.
"[Most games] in this conference have come down to the last media timeout. We've either been up one [possession], tied or down one with just a young team and we can't close it out," UALR Coach Darrell Walker said. "Tonight, I didn't think we played very well. We showed a lot of guts fighting to get back into this basketball game, and he made a heck of a shot to win the game for them."
The Trojans didn't get it all back at once. Down 58-43 early in the second half, UALR used a 13-4 push to cut its deficit to 62-56, only to see Southern Illinois-Edwardsville rip off eight straight points and push its lead back to 14.
But the Trojans came again inside the final eight minutes. DeAntoni Gordon, who finished with a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds, scored five in a row before White made a corner three-pointer that brought some life into the home crowd with UALR trailing 72-66.
Although the Cougars had their way with the Trojans' defense most of the game -- Southern Illinois-Edwardsville shot 32 of 57 from the field with 10 three-pointers -- UALR's pressure down the stretch held the Cougars to just two points over nearly four minutes.
In that time, the backcourt tandem of White and D.J. Smith brought the Trojans within two, setting up a frantic finish.
"Our pressing defense really turned the game up and got them kind of out of whack," Walker said. "It got us really going."
Up 79-77 with 38 seconds to play, the Cougars got the look they wanted, switching Taylor onto Gordon, and the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville guard drove and scored in traffic to put his team up four points.
Gordon then countered on the other end, hitting a turnaround layup with five seconds left. When Cougars forward Lamar Wright missed both of his free throws, White collected the rebound, drawing the loose-ball foul to seemingly give UALR a shot at overtime.
Instead, Walker was at the podium a few minutes later, lamenting the 272 points his Trojans have allowed over their past three games.
"If I tell any coach in America that they've got a game coming up and they're going to get 98 points, he's going to say, 'We're going to win that one!' " Walker said, alluding to UALR's 99-98 loss Thursday night. "We have to figure out how to be more consistent defensively. ... It's going to come down to some individuals saying to themselves, 'I've got to get better defensively.' "
Gallery: SIUE vs UALR Men's Basketball
