Gillon, White provide spark as UALR wins opener over UT-Martin

BURN THE HORSE

A freshman topped the 20-point mark on opening night as UALR held off Tennessee-Martin 84-68 at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

68      84

True freshman John Gillon had 22 points to lead UALR while redshirt freshman James White had 18 points as the Trojans rallied from a late first-half deficit to take control of the game early in the second half.

UALR improved to 1-0 on the season and 10-0 in home openers under Coach Steve Shields.

"I thought it was a total team effort," Shields said. "It was a game where obviously we can learn from a lot of mistakes made from a time-and-score standpoint. But our guys gave a good effort."

Neither Gillon nor White were in the starting lineup. White made an immediate impact when he entered the game, using his long arms to pull down rebounds and score on hustle plays. Gillon got off to a slower start, but took control of the game late in the first half. He scored 9 of his 11 first-half points in the final four minutes of the half as UALR rallied from a 26-21 deficit to lead 39-32.

James White

Junior Will Neighbour finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds despite missing much of the week after suffering a concussion in practice on Tuesday. Neighbour did not practice Wednesday or Thursday and was only cleared to play Friday afternoon.

Sophomore Taggart Lockhart added 10 points while sophomore Ben Dillard had 9.

UALR shot 46 perent from the field while holding UT Martin to 41 percent. But UALR made only 22 of 30 free throws (73 percent), missing opportunities to snag the lead early.

UALR did outrebound Tennessee-Martin 39-32, including 11-4 in offensive rebounds.

UALR finished with 14 rebounds and had only 5 in the second half. But they struggled at times with bad turnovers in situations where they had a chance to put Martin away.

The game was also marred by a couple of bad fouls committed by UT-Martin. The first came on a dunk by UALR's James White as Dowdell Tobias shoved him from behind. The second came with 31 seconds left and UALR prepared to run out the clock. After a rebound, UT-Martin's Terence Smith two-hand shoved Lockhart to the court. Smith was ejected from the game.