Little Rock Improves to 12-1 with 67-61 Win at Troy

TROY, Ala. – Little Rock (12-1, 2-0 SBC) overcame a five-point halftime deficit to earn its national-leading seventh true road victory of the season with a 67-61 victory at Troy (5-8, 0-2 SBC) on Saturday. Jalen Jackson scored a season-high 18 points while Marcus Johnson Jr. added 22 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
 
"I'm tired of getting off to these slow starts and talking about how proud I am of our guys fighting back, but same old story tonight," Beard said after the win. "As a coaching staff we have to figure out how to get off to a better start. But give our players a lot of credit."
 
Little Rock, who trailed 34-29 at the break, limited Troy to 6-of-23 shooting after intermission (.261). Little Rock scored 38 points on 12-of-22 shots after halftime.
 
"That's the backbone of our team. It's no secret," Beard said of his team's second-half defensive effort. " We like to play defense; we pride ourselves on our defense. At halftime we try to meet as a coaching staff and get some ideas to take the material to our players to help them, and we just couldn't come up with many adjustments. The adjustment was to get back and play Little Rock defense."
 
Sixteen of Jackson's 18 points came after intermission. Johnson hit 4 of 8 3-pointers in the contest and 8 of 9 shots at the foul line.
 
Maurius Hill matched his career high with 12 rebounds to go along with eight points, a steal and a blocked shot. Josh Hagins totaled six points, seven rebounds, six assists and four steals. Lis Shoshi grabbed seven boards and blocked three shots.
 
Little Rock scored the first six points of the second half to quickly regain the lead after facing a five-point halftime deficit. The Trojans made 9 of their first 11 shots in the second half to take a 51-44 lead into the under-12 media timeout.
 
Little Rock led by as many as nine points with 9:32 remaining. Troy made a late push, pulling with three on a 3-ponter by Jordon Varnado with 46 seconds to play. Little Rock scored the next four points at the foul line to hold on for the win.
 
Little Rock outscored Troy 22-10 in the paint and, thanks in large part to the efforts of Johnson and Jackson, led 45-16 in bench scoring.
 
After getting off to a slow start, Little Rock used an 18-3 run over six minutes to turn an 11-2 deficit into a 20-14 lead with 8:40 to play in the half. Facing a nine-point deficit, Little Rock used four straight made 3-pointers from Johnson before another 3 by Kemy Osse and a 3-point play by Shoshi capped the scoring spurt. The Trojans forced Troy into seven straight missed shots at one point during the run.
 
Troy provided an answer in the form of a 13-2 run on 7-of-10 shooting over the final 3:10 to regain the lead and take a 34-29 lead into the break. Little Rock's only bucket over the last three minutes in the half came on a jumper by Hagins with 48 seconds on the clock.
 
Varnado totaled 18 points and nine rebounds to lead Troy in the contest.
 
Little Rock returns to action on Thursday when it hosts Louisiana at the Jack Stephens Center. Tipoff is set for 7:15 p.m.