Trojans Pace Sun Belt After 68-62 Win at UTA

ARLINGTON, Texas – In a battle for first place in the Sun Belt Conference, Little Rock (17-2, 7-1 SBC) held on for a 68-62 win over UT Arlington (14-4, 5-2 SBC) Saturday night at College Park Center.
 
The Trojans never trailed, scoring the game's first 18 points en route to building a 42-14 halftime lead, only to withstand a second-half rally from the Mavericks that saw the margin cut to four with under two minutes to play.
 
"I thought we played really clean basketball in the first half," head coach Chris Beard said after the win. "We hit a bunch of shots, obviously, which helps, but we were defending at a high level, we were executing our game plan – that's the best 20 minutes of basketball we've played this season."
 
Little Rock was leading 57-36 with 7:06 remaining when UT Arlington went on a 20-3 run to make it a four-point game with 1:48 left to play. Little Rock broke the Mavs' pressure on the next possession to create a layup, and following an empty UTA possession Josh Hagins grabbed the rebound and was fouled before making both free throws.
 
The Mavs wouldn't go away, pulling back within five on Drew Charles' basket with 1:09 left, and again within four on Erick Neal's triple with 27 seconds to go. Following Neal's basket, Hagins hit two free throws to get the margin back to six, 68-62, and UTA missed its final five 3-point attempts to close the game.
 
"Of course the second half was a tale of two different games," Beard said. "I knew Arlington was going to come back. They're really well-coached, have good players and have a lot of heart."
 
The Trojans are now 7-1 in Sun Belt play for just the second time in program history, and lead the nation with nine true road victories.
 
UTA, which came into the contest averaging 82.3 points and had not scored less than 68 points all season, was held to 62 points on 29.9 percent shooting. Little Rock won the battle of the boards 42-40 over UTA, who entered the game leading the nation in rebounds per game.
 
Hagins led Little Rock with a season-high 20 points to go along with nine rebounds and seven assists. He went 6 of 6 at the foul line and has now hit 20 straight free throws dating back to Monday's game at Arkansas State.
 
Jalen Jackson joined Hagins in double figures, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Kemy Osse, Mareik Isom and Marcus Johnson Jr. all scored nine points each.
 
Plagued by slow starts of late, Little Rock came out white-hot, scoring the first 18 points of Saturday's contest while hitting 6 of its first 10 shots and 4 of its first 6 from 3. The run continued with Little Rock's advantage growing to 23-3 after a 3-pointer from Isom and free throws from Johnson at the 13:15 mark.
 
The Trojans lead swelled to 33-10 with 7:46 to play following baskets from Hagins and Jackson. Another jumper from Jackson made it 35-10 with six minutes to play in the half.
 
Little Rock's lead climbed to 26 when Hagins' second made 3 of the half put Little Rock up 40-14 with just under three minutes on the clock. Jackson's basket with just under a minute to play made the score 42-14, which would hold until intermission.
 
The Trojans finished the opening half shooting 53.6 percent from the floor while knocking down 8 of 16 3-pointers. UTA, meanwhile, connected on just 6 of 27 shots over the first 20 minutes and turned it over eight times. Little Rock scored its 15^th point at the 15:53 mark of the half, exceeding UTA's total for the first 20 minutes.
 
Kennedy Eubanks led UTA with 14 points. Neal and Charles both scored 12 points on the night.
 
The Trojans return to action this week with a pair of matchups at the Jack Stephens Center to kick off a four-game home stand. The Trojans host Georgia Southern on Thursday night (7:15) before hosting Georgia State on Saturday (6 p.m.).