After rattling off five straight wins, the Little Rock men's basketball team has dropped two close losses this week. They look to get back on track at 5 p.m., Saturday at the Jack Stephens Center against the University of Tennessee at Martin. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU with Brett Dolan handling play-by-play duties with and Richie Schueler providing analysis. The game can also be heard on 106.7 Buz2 with the pregame starting at 4:45 with Ray Tucker on the call.
LAST TIME OUT
The Trojans (13-9, 7-4) lost their second-straight game by two points in the final seconds when Tennessee State stung them, 72-70, Thursday night at the Jack Stephens Center.
Aaron Nkrumah hit a go-ahead three-pointer with .6 seconds left. A half-court shot by the Trojans' Toungthach Gatkek that would have won the game was off the mark.
Isaiah Lewis led all scorers with 20 points and added 3 assists.
Johnathan Lawson chipped in 15 points, including 7-of-7 free throws, with 4 steals. Gatkek totaled 13 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
LEWIS' BIG NIGHT
Sophomore junior college transfer guard
Isaiah Lewis had the biggest night of his young career Thursday scoring 20 points which was a high for the game. Before Thursday night's outburst, 17-point outings Jan. 14 at SEMO and Nov. 20 at Tulsa were tied for his largest output.
The 6-foot-3, 165-pound Los Aneles native averages 10 points per game and scored in double figures 12 times this season. Lewis was supposed to play a complementary role to senior point guard
KK Robinson who was lost for the season with a knee injury in the preseason. Lewis has been thrust in the point guard role and has averaged 3.6 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game.
GATKEK GETTING OFFENSIVE
Senior transfer forward Toungthach Gatkek's defensive reputation as been well established this season. The 6-foot-9, 187-pounder, who played at Florida and Texas State, leads the league with 1.9 blocked shots per game.
Gatkek is averaging 8 ppg for the season, but his scoring output has become more robust the past six games. He has hit double figures in five of those games and is averaging nearly 11 points per game during that stretch. His 13 points in Thursday's loss equals a career high that he scored last week at Lindenwood and Nov. 26 against Maryland Eastern Shore.
BLOCKED SHOT BONANZA
Little Rock is one of the better defensive teams in the Ohio Valley Conference and the stats prove it, including blocked shots. The Trojans lead the league in blocked shots with 5.55 per game. Little Rock is also No. 14 in the nation in blocks. They rank No. 46 nationally in scoring defense and lead the OVC in scoring defense and margin.
THE SERIES
Little Rock leads 7-2. They are 3-2 against the Skyhawks since joining the Ohio Valley Conference during the 2022-23 season. The Trojans won 57-56 at Martin, Tenn., earlier this month. They are 6-0 at home against UT Martin all-time in the series.
FIRST LOOK: UT MARTIN
The conference season has been up and down for the Skyhawks (9-13, 5-6). They have endured four one-point losses and have gone to overtime twice, losing both times. One of the tougher defeats was a 70-69 setback at Morehead State, who leads the OVC. Little Rock overcame a late deficit to beat the Skyhawks, 57-56, on a
Johnathan Lawson floater with time ticking down.
After a big 85-82 win over SIUE, who sits in second-place tie in the OVC, on Jan. 18, UT Martin has dropped three straight. Thursday night the Skyhawks lost 90-79 at Southeast Missouri. That was their only double-digit loss in league play
Junior college transfer junior guard Tarence Guinyard continues to have an impactful season averaging just under 16 points per game and just under 5 rebounds per game. Jose Grullon, a 6-5, 195 junior guard, adds 14.7 ppg and 4 rpg. Vladimer Salaridze, a 6-7, 230-pounder, chips in 11 points per game and leads the team with 8.4 rpg.
