Box Score
LITTLE ROCK - North Texas (16-12, 9-6 SBC) made all five of its field goal attempts and went 6-of-7 at the foul line in overtime to hand the UALR men's basketball team (14-15, 11-4) a 75-67 loss at the Jack Stephens Center on Thursday night. Alzee Williams scored a game-high 25 points and Tony Mitchell added a 13-point, 16-rebound double-double to help the Mean Green deny UALR's bid to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament and an outright West Division championship.
Senior D'Andre Williams and sophomore Chuck Guy paced the Trojans with 18 and 16 points, respectively, while senior Courtney Jackson recorded his first double-double of the year with a 12-point, 14-rebound performance. UALR outscored North Texas 25-to-11 at the foul line, but shot just 31.6 percent from the floor while surrendering a .460 field goal percentage to the Mean Green.
UALR trailed 59-54 with 2:48 left to play in regulation, but rallied to force overtime as Jackson scored on a layup with 2:10 remaining and Guy evened things up at 59-all with a three-point play with 1:26 left in the game. Both teams had a chance to win in regulation, but the two squads combined to go 0-for-3 from three-point range over the final 49 seconds. North Texas had the last possession in regulation after Guy missed a three pointer with 27 seconds left, but Alzee Williams came up short on a contested three-point attempt as time expired.
North Texas took advantage of a slow start by the Trojans in overtime to build a quick four-point lead, as UALR went scoreless over its first three possessions in the extra period. Baskets by Alzee Williams and Tyler Hall allowed the Mean Green to go ahead 63-59, but the Trojans pulled within a point, 63-62, as D'Andre Williams connected from beyond the arc. The Amarillo, Texas-native, who scored all eight of UALR's points in overtime, made 1-of-2 free throws to make it a 67-65 ballgame with 1:13 remaining, but Roger Franklin hit a long jumper as the shot clock wound down to put NT on top 69-65.
Freshman Michael Javes went to the foul line with 24.7 seconds and the Trojans down by four, but missed both of his foul shots. The 6-10 forward was a perfect 8-for-8 at the foul line up to that point in the game. Alzee Williams followed up Javes' misses by going 6-for-6 at the charity stripe over the final 18.7 seconds to seal the win.
UALR held a 36-32 lead at the half after outscoring North Texas 17-to-3 at the foul line off an .850 free-throw percentage (17-of-20). Mitchell picked up his second foul at the 6:59 mark and went to the bench for the rest of the half, finishing with four points, two rebounds and two turnovers in the opening stanza. Brandan Walton kept the Mean Green afloat in the first half by scoring 11 of the team's first 16 points, as made four of his first five field goal attempts (3-for-4 from three-point range).
The Mean Green opened the second half on a 15-5 run, however, to take a 47-41 advantage with 13:24 remaining, and the Trojans played behind for the rest of the half until Guy tied things up with 1:26 to go. North Texas went 7-of-10 from the field during its 15-5 run, while the Trojans opened the second half by going 2-of-14 from the field.
UALR held a +4 margin on the glass in the first half (18-to-14), but was outrebounded by 11 over the rest of the game. Mitchell played all 20 minutes in the second half, totaling seven points and 13 rebounds to help NT outrebound the Trojans 27-to-18 in the second half.
The Trojans will close out the regular season at home on Saturday night with a 7 p.m. bout against Arkansas State. A win over ASU on Saturday would give UALR sole possession of the West Division title and the No. 2 overall seed at the conference tournament. Saturday's game will be Senior Night for Williams, Jackson, Tramar Sutherland and Marlon Louzeiro.
