MARTIN, Tenn. -
Johnathan Lawson's floater on the right side of the lane with two seconds remaining gave the Little Rock men's basketball team a 57-56 win at the University of Tennessee at Martin Thursday night.
Little Rock hadn't held a lead in the game since 18:12 mark of the first half when they led 2-0, and only led for 12 seconds of the game. The Trojans also trailed by as many as 12 in the second half.
Little Rock (8-5, 2-0) held the Skyhawks (5-9, 1-2) to 29% shooting from the field and without a field goal for the final 13 minutes of the game. UT Martin was 1 of 14 from the three-point line in the second half. They also only made 15 of 23 (65.2%) free throws.
Lawson scored eight of his 14 points in the final 1:37. He also totaled six rebounds.
Tuongthach Gatkek grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds and scored 9 points, dished out 4 assists and nabbed 4 steals.
Travonne Jackson scored 12 points off the bench.
Little Rock trailed 32-22 at halftime and fell behind 41-29 at the 15:40 mark of the second half.
The Trojans put together an 8-1 run to get back in the game. Gatkek hit a turnaround jumper to cap the spurt and cut the lead to 44-41 with 7:18 left.
Little Rock kept the pressure on UT Martin for the next few minutes and shaved the lead to two with
Isaiah Lewis' layup with 5:23 remaining. Moments later, Jackson hit a three-pointer to make it a 48-47 game with 4:32 remaining.
However, UT Martin seemed to take control of the game over the next few minutes outscoring the Trojans 6-0, all on six free throws.
The Skyhawks led 54-47 with 1:50 to play when the Trojans began an improbable comeback. Jackson made two free throws with 1:49 to go to cut the advantage to five, and then Lawson hit a three-pointer to make it a 54-52 game with 1:37 remaining.
UTM's Tarance Guinyard made two free throws to push the lead to 56-52 at the 1:01 mark, but Lawson drilled another triple with 44 seconds left.
UTM drained the clock and Little Rock forced Guinyard to take a tough jumper that he missed with 18 seconds left. Gatkek cleared the rebound, and Little Rock set up a half-court play for Lawson.
He drove the right side of the lane and hit a floater over a Skyhawks defender.
Josue Grullon led UT Martin with 20 points, but the Trojans held Guinyard, the Skyhawks' leading scorer (16.7 ppg) to seven points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field.
Little Rock looks to stay unbeaten in Ohio Valley Conference play when they it plays at Tennessee State (4-10, 0-3) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Nashville, Tenn.
