Box Score LOGAN, Utah ? The Arkansas-Little Rock men's basketball team (6-5) suffered a 76-44 loss to Utah State (7-3) on the opening day of the Gossner Foods Classic on Thursday. USU's Nate Harris and Jaycee Carroll combined for 44 points and helped the host Aggies shoot 56.6 percent from the field in the win.
Harris hit on 11-of-13 field goal attempts en route to a game-high 23 points, while adding seven boards. Carroll's final stat line featured 21 points, a 7-of-13 shooting effort, seven rebounds and eight assists.
“Stew (Morrill) does an outstanding job. They are a very efficient basketball team, especially on the offensive end,” said UALR head coach Steve Shields. “They are a very athletic team. When you look at a guy like Jaycee Carroll, his motor runs non-stop.”
The Trojans shot just 38.0 percent for the game and were outrebounded 38-23 in the loss. Junior Rashad Jones-Jennings was the team's lone bright spot, finishing with team highs of 17 points and nine rebounds, while shooting 8-of-16 from the floor.
The Aggies came out firing on all cylinders, building a 41-17 lead at the half after shooting 57.7 percent (15-of-26) from the field and 62.5 percent from three-point range (5-of-8) over the first 20 minutes. Harris and Carroll accounted for most of the damage, racking up 17 and 14 points, respectively.
UALR's offense meanwhile, shot just 33.3 percent and was a one-man show as Jones-Jennings scored 13 of the team's 17 first-half points (which marked a season low for points in a half). The Trojans compounded their problems by being outrebounded 21-8 in the first session.
The game was tied at 4-all early on, before the Aggies put together a 12-0 run to go on top for good. Harris accounted for eight of the team's points during the run, while Carroll chipped in a three pointer.
USU didn't let up in the second half, as the team prevented a UALR comeback by shooting 55.6 percent (15-of-27) over the final 20 minutes. Junior Zack Wright contributed nine points off the bench, while senior Elijah Muldrow added eight points.
The Trojans close out their stay in Logan tomorrow when they face Idaho State (7-3) at 6:30 p.m. (central) at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. The Bengals dropped a 59-46 decision to Binghamton in the opening game of the tournament.
“These are the times that we talked about on the Sunday afternoon before the first day of class,” said Shields. “Every basketball team in the country deals with adversity. The successful teams deal with it in a positive way. We will find out what we are made of, coaches included, tomorrow night.”
