BURN THE HORSE
After a sluggish first half, UALR brought the hammer down in
the second half on Saturday night. UALR scored 51 second half points en route
to an 83-58 victory over Louisiana-Monroe at the Jack Stephens Center in Little
Rock.
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58 83 |
UALR (6-3, 2-0 Sun Belt Conference) holds a one game lead
over Louisiana-Lafayette in the early Sun Belt West Division standings. ULM
(0-4, 0-2) remains winless on the season.
But ULM was game early. Playing without leading scorer Amos
Olatayo, who was sidelined after apparently suffering cramps on Thursday, the
Warhawks stormed out of the gate for an early six-point lead. But UALR regained
its footing midway through the first half and held a 32-27 lead at
intermission.
It was all Trojans after halftime as UALR outscored ULM by
20 points in the second half.
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| Ben Dillard (left) celebrates with Leroy Isler. |
Sophomore Ben Dillard, who has been in a scoring slump,
broke out in a big way. He made 3 of 6 three-pointers and finished with a
game-high 17 points. Junior Will Neighbour struggled to get involved much of
the night offensively. But he still finished with a quiet 13 points and 6
rebounds.
Freshman James White added 14 points while sophomore Taggart
Lockhart played big minutes off the bench and finished with 9 points.
UALR shot 47 percent, making 50 percent of its two-point
attempts and 43 percent of its three-point attempts. UALR also made more free
throws (23 of 27) than Louisiana-Monroe attempted (7 of 17). UALR held a 33-26
rebound advantage and was credited with four blocked shots (it seemed like a
lot more).
UALR struggled with 10 turnovers in the first half and
finished with 15 for the game. But UALR forced Monroe into 19 turnovers.
