BURN THE HORSE
It’s difficult to keep track of all the teams in NCAA
Division I basketball. So when UALR was scheduled to play Jacksonville
University, we looked up their record from a year ago. They went 8-22 and 6-12
in the Atlantic Sun.
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JACKSONVILLE AT UALR7:30 p.m. WednesdayJack Stephens Center |
That looked like a victory. But then you look a little
deeper into their program and you find out last year was just a down year. And
then you read about their victory at Missouri State on Monday and you have to
believe Jacksonville is going to be pretty good this season.
UALR (2-2) hosts Jacksonville (2-2) at 7:30 p.m. tonight at
the Jack Stephens Center as part of the second game of the Hoops For Hope
Classic.
The three seasons before last year the Dolphins advanced to
postseason, playing in the NIT twice and the CIT once. They won 20 games in
each of the last two of those seasons.
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| McDougald |
Jacksonville might have taken its lumps last year, but the
Dolphins return three starters who are capable scorers. Keith McDougald, 6-1
guard, (11.0 ppg) is the leading scorer after recovering from a knee injury
late last year. And 5-9 Russell Powell (5.0 ppg) has started every Dolphins
game the past three seasons. The other is 6-6 Glenn Powell (8.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg),
who can be a scoring machine if he gets hot.
Junior college transfer 6-6 Dylan Fritch (9.5 ppg) and 6-4
freshman Jarvis Haywood (8.8 ppg) are also capable scorers.
Jacksonville went 10 deep in Monday’s game against Missouri
State. They don’t have the size that Wisconsin-Milwaukee brought to the
Stephens Center on Monday.
Jacksonville built team chemistry with an offseason trip to
the Dominican Republic. It showed in a close loss to Georgia to open the season
and in Monday’s victory in Springfield.
UALR fans know how difficult it is to win in Springfield.
UALR has been completely dismantled up there a couple of times in recent years.
McDougald had 17 points while Glenn Powell had 10 points and 8 rebounds.
Jacksonville built a 10 point lead with 7 minutes remaining
and held on late. A jumper by McDougald with:
34 left gave the Dolphins a 61-58 lead. Then Javon Dawson got a steal and McDougald
hit a couple of free throws to help put the game away.
