Box Score
Wright's career high leads UALR past Aggies
Feb. 24, 2005
Box score
Zack Wright scored a career-best 25 points and went
14-of-14 from the free throw line as UALR took a hard-fought win over New
Mexico State, 75-69, Thursday night at Alltel Arena.
Richard Hardman added 17 points for the Trojans
(17-9, 9-4 in Sun Belt Conference play) while Darius Eason scored 14. Josh
Jenkins led New Mexico State (5-22, 1-13) with 22 points..
UALR had a chance to clinch its second consecutive
Sun Belt East Division championship on Thursday, but Middle Tennessee lost
at Western Kentucky on a last-second shot in overtime. The Trojans must
now beat Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday to clinch the title. ULL lost at
Arkansas State on Thursday, 86-80.
Going into halftime, UALR led by just two, 37-35.
New Mexico State led by as many as nine early in the game, as a layup by
Byron Davis gave the Aggies a 14-5 advantage with 15:21 left in the first
half.
UALR went on a 13-4 scoring run -- sparked by four
free throws and a layup by Wright -- to tie the game 18-18 with 9:09 to
play.
New Mexico State then hit consecutive layups to go
back up by four, and UALR answered with a layup from Hardman, back-to-back
three-pointers by Brandon Freeman and Wright and a dunk by Eason to take
an eight-point lead, 30-22, with 4:49 remaining.
The Aggies scored the first six points of the second
half to take a 41-37 less than two minutes into the period. Two buckets by
Hardman tied the game 41-41 with 17:42 to play before Jenkins threw down a
dunk for the Aggies with 16:41 left.
Josh Jacobs tied the game again with a layup at the
16:23 mark, and the Trojans took the lead for good on Eason's layup with
14:10 to play.
The Trojans managed to extend their lead to seven,
61-54, with 6:51 remaining, but New Mexico State scrapped and cut the lead
to two twice late in the game. A layup by Jeff Jones with 2:06 left pulled
the Aggies to within 67-65. Hardman's two free throws put UALR up by four
before Mike Mitchell's bucket for New Mexico State cut the lead to 69-67
with 1:08 to play.
Wright hit six consecutive free throws in the final
46 seconds of the game before Jenkins' layup for NMSU with five seconds to
play.
UALR returns for its final regular season game at
Alltel Arena on Saturday when the Trojans host Louisiana-Lafayette at 1
p.m.
