Box Score LITTLE ROCK - The UALR men's basketball team improved to 3-1 on the season with a 63-54 victory over Illinois State (2-1) at the Jack Stephens Center on Sunday afternoon. Three Trojans scored in double figures in the win, led by 14 points from senior Solomon Bozeman.
UALR held a narrow 25-23 lead at the half, but shot 50.0 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes to knock off the Redbirds. Leading 36-31 in the second half, freshman Chuck Guy scored 11-consecutive points to help UALR take control for good. Guy finished with 11 points in the win and was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range. Junior Marlon Louzeiro rounded out UALR's double figure scorers with 11 points off 4-of-5 shooting.
"It was a good team effort tonight, from one through thirteen," said UALR head coach Steve Shields. "Any time you face a well-coached, solid basketball team like Illinois State, you know they are going to make a run at you and I thought our guys did a good job of handling that tonight."
The Trojans committed just 10 turnovers on the night and held the Redbirds to a .386 field goal percentage, including a 5-of-22 effort from three-point range (22.7 percent). Illinois State enjoyed a +8 rebounding margin in the loss (40-to-32), led by a nine-point, 13-rebound effort off the bench from Tony Lewis. Reserves Trey Blue and Austin Hill paced the Illinois State offense in the loss, scoring 14 and 13 points, respectively.
"We are a team that has to play with an edge about us, and I thought our guys managed to do that tonight on the defensive end," said Shields. "We weren't as solid on the defensive glass as we needed to be, but that's something we'll work on."
UALR never trailed in Sunday's win, scoring nine-unanswered points at the start of the game, seven of which came from Louzeiro, on its way to a 14-2 lead to open the contest. Illinois State, which missed on its first seven field goal attempts, finally got on the board with 14:13 left in the half off a layup by Blake Mishler. Senior Matt Mouzy capped off UALR's opening run with a three pointer to put the Trojans ahead 14-2 at the 12:51 mark.
UALR's lead reached as high as 13 points in the first half, 19-6, after a three pointer by Bozeman with 7:47 left to play. Down by 13, Illinois State finally found its shooting touch, knocking down a pair of three pointers during a quick 10-0 run to pull within three, 19-16, with 4:18 remaining.
The Trojans led 25-18 with 57 second to go, but the Redbirds scored the final five points of the half, capped off by a three-point play from Lewis in the closing seconds to make it a 25-23 ballgame at the break.
Illinois State cut its deficit to two points near the start of the second half, and trailed by just three, 34-31, after Blue made 1-of-2 foul shots with 12:57 left in the game. Senior Montrell Thornton answered with a dunk off an assist from Mouzy to put the Trojans ahead 36-31. Leading by five, Guy would go on to score the Trojans' next 11 points to put UALR on top by eight. Guy was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range during his scoring display, the last of which gave UALR a 47-39 edge with 8:21 to play.
Bozeman followed with a jumper moments later to put UALR ahead by 10, 49-39, and the Redbirds were unable to get back within single digits until the closing seconds of the game.
UALR shot 42.9 percent from the field in the win and connected on 6-of-13 three-point attempts (46.2 percent). The Trojans outscored ISU 15-to-5 at the free-throw line, though most of those foul shots came in the closing minutes when the game was already in-hand.
UALR returns to action Wednesday night when it travels to Tulsa, Okla. to take on Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. The game will be televised by Fox College Sports.
