Little Rock Rally Comes Up Short at Coastal Carolina

CONWAY, S.C. – Little Rock (11-6, 2-2 SBC) used a furious rally down the stretch but came up just short in a 66-63 loss at Coastal Carolina (8-9, 3-1 SBC) on Monday.
 
Down 16 with 11:31 to play and still trailing 60-49 with 5:53 remaining, Little Rock battled back to pull within 62-58 with 3:05 to play. A 9-2 run featuring five points from Deondre Burns whittled the margin to four.
 
After two Coastal free throws, five more points from Burns made it a 66-63 game with 1:31 left on the clock. Both teams combined to miss their next five shots, and following a pair of missed free throws by CCU's Beck with 3.3 seconds remaining, Little Rock had one final shot to tie the game.
 
Coastal fouled on Little Rock's initial inbound, leaving 1.8 seconds. On the second inbound attempt Kemy Osse found Maurius Hill in the corner, whose game-tying 3-point attempt was off the mark as time expired.
 
Burns established a new career high for the second straight game, scoring 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Marcus Johnson Jr. scored 15 while Lis Shoshi added 10.
 
Little Rock's defense limited Coastal to 39.1 percent shooting, but the Chanticleers made eight 3-pointers and 8 of 15 at the foul line.
 
The Trojans went into halftime trailing 38-27.
 
Little Rock used a 6-0 run late in the frame to trim the margin to three, 30-27. The Chanticleers answered by scoring the final eight points of the half, however, including a 3-pointer by Colton Ray-St Cyr at the horn to make it 38-27 at halftime.
 
The Trojans limited CCU to 39.5 percent shooting in the half, but the Chanticleers scored 21 points from the 3-point line, making 7 of 15 shots from deep over the first 20 minutes. Johnson scored 10 and Shoshi had seven points for Little Rock in the opening half.
 
Little Rock returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Arkansas State in a men's and women's doubleheader at the Jack Stephens Center. Tipoff for the women's game is set for 4 p.m. and the men will start at 6.
 
Sun Belt Championship Tickets
 
The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled for a week of March Madness in the Big Easy.  New Orleans will once again be home to the two championships that will take place at Lakefront Arena from March 7-12 and ticket books can now be purchased from your school's ticket office.  For more information, visit the Sun Belt Conference's championship central websites - Men's Championship – Women's Championship – and be sure to follow the #FunBelt on social media – @SunBelt.