Trojans looking for third straight win as OBU visits Tuesday night

After playing six straight road games in November, the Little Rock men's basketball team is settling in for a five-game home stretch that keeps them at the Jack Stephens Center all this month. The Trojans (5-4) look to extend their winning streak to three Tuesday night in a nonconference tilt with NCAA Division II member Ouachita Baptist (5-3). Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and can be heard on 106.7 Buz2 with the pregame beginning at 6:45 p.m. The game will also be streamed on ESPN+ with Dorian Craft and Patrick Newton on the call.

The Trojans beat in-state foe Central Arkansas last Wednesday. Trojans seventh-year head coach Darrell Walker wasn't happy with his team's 21 turnovers, but UCA committed 16 miscues and only shot 29% in the second half as they only held the lead briefly in the first half to never lead again.

Triple threat

Johnathan Lawson has made an immediate impact on the Trojans after transferring from Creighton. The junior guard from Memphis is averaging just over 15 points per game and perimeter shooting has been a big part of that output. Lawson is shooting a sizzling 46% from the 3-point line. That is tops on the team. 

THE SERIES

OBU leads the series 24-2, but most of those games came before 1968. The lone recent meeting came on Nov. 11, 2017. The Tigers upset the Trojans, 81-79.

FIRST LOOK: OBU

The Tigers (5-3) were on a roll before being swept on a Great American Conference road trip to Oklahoma last week. OBU fell to East Central, 77-67, on Thursday night, and then to Southeastern Oklahoma State, 81-79, on Saturday. 

The Tigers are 1-1 in neutral-site games, 4-0 at home and 0-2 in road games.
Hobert Grayson and Shaun Williams lead a potent OBU offense. Grayson, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound junior college transfer, averages 24 points per game and Williams, a 6-3 Cal-State Bakersfield grad transfer, 19.5. Senior guard Reggie Martin (10.4 ppg) and 6-8 junior forward Devyn Franklin (9.8 ppg) are also scoring threats. OBU averages more than 90 ppg and shoots 40% from the 3-point line. 

The game will be a homecoming of sorts for OBU head coach Dennis Nutt, who is in his 14^th season at OBU. The former TCU standout, who played briefly in the NBA, is a Little Rock Central High School alum. All of Nutt's brothers also starred in different sports for the Tigers. Older brother Houston, played football and basketball at Arkansas and Oklahoma State and eventually was the head football coach at Arkansas among other stops. Brother, Danny, was an assistant under Houston for Arkansas and Dickey Nutt, was the men's head basketball coach Arkansas State for a number of years and since has been a Division I assistant coach.