Little Rock Hangs Tough, Stumbles Late in 72-57 Loss at App State

BOONE, N.C. – Little Rock battled league-leading App State for 35 minutes, trailing by one possession with five minutes to play. But a 14-2 Mountaineer run to close out the game sealed the win, handing the Trojans a 72-57 loss.
 
Little Rock shot 40.0% for the game, knocking down 22-of-55 shots, including 7-of-17 from beyond the arc and 6-of-8 from the free throw line, led by a career-high 16 points from Myron Gardner, tying a career-best with eight rebounds as well.
 
Isaiah Palermo registered his team-best 10th double-digit performance of the year, finishing with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Jordan Jefferson had nine points for Little Rock with four rebounds and three steals with Nikola Maric adding eight points, four rebounds and a team-high six assists.
 
Kevin Osawe and D.J. Smith each added six points off the bench to round out the scoring for the Trojans.
 
Rebounding once again went the way of the opposition as the Mountaineers outrebounded the Trojans 38-29, knocking down 45.3% of their shots while going 9-of-23 from three point range. Free throw shooting was also key for App State, making 15 of its 21 free throws, compared to just the 6-of-8 for Little Rock.
 
Playing its final game as a league member at the Holmes Convocation Center, Little Rock shot much better in the early going than in its previous outing, hanging with App State in the early going. The Trojans held a 5-4 lead early off a three from Gardner, the first of his team-high 12 points in the first half.
 
App State would use a 12-2 run to build a nine-point lead at 16-7, which was quickly answered by an 8-0 run for the Trojans, including five from Jefferson, to pull to within one at 16-15 at the midway point of the opening half.
 
That run was answered by a 9-0 App State run, building its largest lead of the half at 25-15 with 7:57 to play. Little rock would chip away at that deficit, led by Gardner scoring nine of the Trojans' next 11 points, with a three from Palermo in the corner with 27 seconds remaining pulling Little Rock within three at 32-29. But an and-one for the Mountaineers with less than a second remaining pushed the halftime lead to 35-29 for App State.
 
Little Rock shot 41.4% in the opening half, going 12-for-29, and was 5-for-10 from three point range, led by the 12 from Gardner. App State held a 20-15 rebounding edge, shooting 40.7% from the floor.
 
The Trojans scored the first four points of the second half behind a dunk from Palermo and a pair of free throws from Smith, getting to within two at 35-33 within the first 90 seconds.  App State again came up with some big shots, extending its lead to 11 at 49-39 with 13:09 remaining.
 
That run was once again matched by the Trojans, who used a 7-0 run to get to within four at 49-45, then extended that run to 14-4, capped by a jumper from Smith and a layup from Maric to get Little Rock within one at 53-52 at the 7:04 mark. Four different Trojans scored during the stretch as the Trojans knocked down six of eight shots during the run.
 
After App State pushed the lead to 58-52, a three from Osawe got the Trojans within three at 58-55 with 5:23 to play. But the experience of App State paid off down the stretch, outscoring Little Rock 14-2 over the final five minutes, including back-to-back threes with the shot clock expiring, handing the Trojans the 72-57 loss.
 
App State was led by 23 points from Donovan Gregory, followed by 19 points and nine rebounds from Adrian Delph and 14 points form CJ Huntley. The loss pushes Little Rock's road record to 0-7 on the year as the Mountaineers evened the all-time series at 8-8 in possibly the final meeting between the two teams as league members.
 
Little Rock now returns home for a pair of games at the Jack Stephens Center against the Louisiana foes, beginning Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against the Ragin' Cajuns.
 
#LittleRocksTeam