Box Score LITTLE ROCK – The UALR men's basketball team (11-15, 6-10 SBC) earned the season sweep of Arkansas State (9-15, 4-11 SBC) with a 70-57 victory Thursday night at the Jack Stephens Center. UALR has now won seven of its last eight games against the Red Wolves in Little Rock, and seven of the last 10 in the series overall.
“I'm proud of our guys and I'm proud of the way we played moving the basketball,” head coach Steve Shields said after the win. “We had 17 assists, only six turnovers, and I think that's a true indicator of how our guys are playing. They're playing very unselfish, they're moving the ball and they don't care who gets the credit. That was a good team win.”
Roger Woods (5) and Josh Hagins (4) combined for nine assists, while James Reid added three. The Trojans' 17 assists were two shy of their season high, while their six turnovers were one more than their season low.
Maurius Hill started, played 33 minutes and led UALR with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. In a game that UALR never trailed, Hill helped set the pace by scoring seven of the Trojans' first nine points out of the gate.
Mareik Isom added 15 points, knocking down 6 of 11 shots from the floor while grabbing seven rebounds. Isom was 2 of 3 from long range on the night. Woods and Reid scored 11 points each to give UALR four players in double figures. Hagins added nine points on a perfect 3-of-3 effort from long range.
UALR's defense was able to force Arkansas State into 13 turnovers and 40.0 percent shooting from the floor. ASU started the game cold, hitting just 9 of 28 shots in the opening half while digging itself into a 10-point deficit at halftime. The Red Wolves hit 13 of 27 shots in the second half, but couldn't slow UALR's offense which hit 13 of 23 shots (56.5 percent) and outscored ASU 34-31 over the final 20 minutes.
Anthony Livingston carried the load for Arkansas State, scoring 20 points and grabbing 19 rebounds.
Two deep jumpers by Hill and a layup by Isom and UALR was able to jump out to a quick 7-0 lead on Arkansas State before the game was four minutes in.
The Red Wolves crept within 19-15 after a pair of free throws by Sean Gardner at the 8:29 mark of the first half. But UALR answered with an 11-2 run that included three 3-pointers to go up 30-17 with under five minutes to play in the half.
Arkansas State started the second half by outscoring UALR 9-3 to pull within 39-35 at the 16:50 mark. The Trojans again answered the bell, scoring the next six points to push their lead back out to 10 and the Red Wolves would pull no closer than six the rest of the way.
The victory puts UALR in seventh place in the Sun Belt standings with four regular season games remaining.
UALR will travel to Troy, Ala., to take on Troy Saturday at 4:15 p.m.
