LITTLE ROCK – Little Rock topped Central Baptist College by a 76-57 final on Saturday at the Jack Stephens Center to improve to 1-0 on the season and earn the first win of
Chris Beard's tenure as head coach.
The Trojans used a hot start to build an 11-point lead at the half before pulling away for the 19-point win. Little Rock's offense was crisp, shooting 46.7 percent from the floor while connecting on 7 of 20 3-point attempts.
"It's always nice to start the season off with a game and a win at home," Beard said after the win. "Probably the biggest positive was not only the game, but the whole atmosphere. We had an amazing pep rally last night for homecoming, we had a Trojan Alley Tailgate before the game … just a lot of excitement. … We are very appreciative of everybody that was a part of this weekend and certainly the fans that came out tonight."
Four Trojans finished the game in double figures.
Josh Hagins led Little Rock with 12 points to go along with four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Lis Shoshi scored 11 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots.
Kemy Osse scored 10 points while going 2 of 4 from long range.
Roger Woods totaled 10 points and six boards in 21 minutes of work.
Jalen Jackson finished with nine points while
Marcus Johnson Jr. added eight off the bench.
"The first half was pretty clean basketball," Beard said. "Defensively, I thought we guarded consistently for 40 minutes. There were a lot of individual mistake, just like every other team in the country this time of year, but the effort was there for 40 minutes. Now we just have to work on execution."
The Trojans' defense limited Central Baptist, for which Saturday's contest served as an exhibition, to 37.3 percent shooting on the night. Jayln McBride led the Mustangs with 16 points, all in the first half, on 6-of-12 shooting.
Little Rock quickly grew its 11-point halftime lead to 17 with a 6-0 spurt to start the second half. Central Baptist trimmed the deficit back to 12 before a 3-point play by Woods and corner 3 from Johnson pushed the margin out to 18. A triple by
Stetson Billings grew the lead to 61-40 with 11:40 to play. Consecutive triples by Hagins and Osse matched Little Rock's largest lead at 70-46 with just over six minutes remaining.
The Trojans led 43-32 at halftime after shooting 57.1 percent over the first 20 minutes. Jackson and Hagins had totaled nine points each to led the team on offense. Central Baptist shot hit just 13 of 35 shots from the floor, but connected on 6 of 10 3-pointers.
Little Rock returns to action on Wednesday when it hosts Centenary at 5:15 p.m.
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