BURN THE HORSE
UALR seemed a step behind all night long in a 74-62 loss to
South Carolina Sunday night in the championship game of the Hoops for Hope
Classic in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
UALR (4-3), which had won three-consecutive games in the
tournament, didn’t get going offensively until the game was well out of hand
against South Carolina (5-1).
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62 74 |
Will Neighbour led UALR with 19 points, but the Trojans didn’t
get much going until late. John Gillon added 9 points, hitting three late three-pointers.
UALR missed its first nine three-point attempts.
The highlight might have been the first collegiate points
for UALR senior manager turned walk-on Ted Crass, who buried a three-pointer in
the final minute of the game.
UALR let the game slip away in the first half, getting
outrebounded 25-8 and trailing 39-22 at intermission. The lead ballooned to 26
points in the second half before a garbage time rally by the Trojans.
“I was encouraged about tonight that when we got down 25
tonight we continued to fight and scrap. There are no moral victories. But that
was a problem for us a week ago at Ole Miss,” UALR Coach Steve Shields said. “It’s
a typical Frank Martin team. They get after you defensively. They take you out
of your stuff offensively. They’re a great rebounding team. We were down 25-8
on the glass in the first half and I thought that was the difference."
