BURN THE HORSE
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| 72 70 |
Chuck Guy’s three-pointer with .8 seconds left sent the game to overtime where UALR held on to beat Louisiana-Lafayette 72-70 on Thursday night at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La.
“Our guys are a resilient group. We‘re not perfect by any stretch but we‘re still growing and getting better,” UALR Coach Steve Shields said.
Guy made 1 of 2 free throws with 9 seconds left in overtime to give UALR the 72-70 lead. Louisiana-Lafayette’s J.J. Thomas went for the victory but missed a three-pointer as UALR held on.
UALR improves to 9-2 in the Sun Belt Conference and is now two games ahead of Louisiana-Lafayette and North Texas in the loss column of the West Division standings. UALR also gets a showdown of sorts for the Sun Belt Conference’s overall lead on Saturday with an ESPN2 televised game against Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders are 11-1 in Sun Belt play after beating Western Kentucky on Thursday.
D’Andre Williams had a career high 24 points to lead UALR. Guy finished with 14 points. Will Neighbour also had 14 points, including two late three-pointers.
It looked like it might not happen. After a miss, UALR got the ball back out of bounds thanks to the hustle of Williams. The Trojans then got the ball to Neighbour, whose second three-pointer with 9 seconds left cut the Louisiana-Lafayette lead to 63-62.
“We had to get a good look. Chuck set a good screen and Will knocked it down,“ Shields said.
UALR fouled Bryant Mbamalu who hit two free throws to give the Ragin’ Cajuns a 65-62 lead.
Williams then got the ball to Guy for a three-pointer with .8 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
“Our first option was off the ball screen with Will popping. They guarded it very well. We had chuck rolling up behind. D’Andre made a great pass and Chuck stepped up and made a championship shot.”
Williams hit a jumper and Michael Javes a fade as the Trojans took a 69-65 lead. But the Trojans still had to hang on for dear life. The Cajuns cut the lead to 71-70 with 1:27 left on a dunk by Kadeem Coleby.
Both teams missed chances. Javes missed for UALR and Elfrid Payton missed for ULL. After a near turnover, UALR called timeout with 35 seconds left.
But Williams missed a jump shot and Payton grabbed the rebound and raced the other direction. But Chuck Guy poked the ball loose and Louisiana-Lafayette had to foul him with 9 seconds left.
Guy made the first for a 72-70 lead but he missed the second.
Thomas missed a three-pointer and Guy grabbed the rebound to secure the victory.
