SUN BELT MEN

Late lapses net first home loss

Louisiana Tech forward Isaiah Massey (10) pulls down a rebound over UALR forward Will Neighbour (53) during Monday’s game at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock. Neighbour finished with 7 points, 5 rebounds and 1 block as the Trojans lost 75-73.
Louisiana Tech forward Isaiah Massey (10) pulls down a rebound over UALR forward Will Neighbour (53) during Monday’s game at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock. Neighbour finished with 7 points, 5 rebounds and 1 block as the Trojans lost 75-73.

— The UALR men’s basketball team forced Louisiana Tech out of its preferred pressure defense and all but eliminated the Bulldogs’ transition offense Monday night at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

That combination was enough to stake UALR with a small lead for much of Monday’s second half.

But defensive lapses and poor offensive execution in the final four minutes prevented the Trojans from running their home winning streak to eight consecutive games.

Louisiana Tech scored seven consecutive points over 1:25 to erase a four-point UALR lead with less than five minutes left. UALR’s James White then missed two free throws with 1.2 seconds left, Josh Hagins missed a shot at the buzzer and Louisiana Tech escaped with a 75-73 victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,734.

“We didn’t get any stops,” UALR guard Taggart Lockhart said. “That’s what we talked about: ‘We get three stops in a row and they’ll crumble.’ We didn’t get any stops.”

It was UALR’s first home loss of the season, a stretch of games that included a two point victory over Troy last month and a seven-point victory over Tulsa on Saturday. But the Trojans (8-5) couldn’t close against the Bulldogs, who scored on five consecutive possessions to retake a lead it hadn’t had since midway through the first half.

Hagins’ jumper gave UALR a 69-65 lead with 3:41 left after the lead changed hands four times over two minutes midway through the second half.

But Brandon Gibson got Louisiana Tech (9-3) within 69-67 with a layup, Hagins missed a three-pointer and Kenyon McNeail, who starred at Conway High School, made two free throws to tie the game at 69-69 with 3:03 left.

“Boom, within [35] seconds its tied,” Louisiana Tech Coach Michael White said.

Leroy Isler missed a three pointer for UALR, then Mc-Neail, who finished with nine points, made a three-pointer from the corner to put Louisiana Tech up 72-69 with 2:17 left.

Raheem Appleby, a Jacksonville High School graduate who finished with 17 points, made 1 of 2 free throws to get it to 75-73 and UALR forward James White was fouled with 1.2 seconds left going up for a layup.

He missed the first free throw and, after a UALR timeout, missed the second intentionally before Hagins’ missed his jumper at the buzzer, handing UALR its second loss of the season to Louisiana Tech.

“If you’re a basketball player and you come into those situations you’ve got to come up with them,” said White of the free throws. “I just tried to make the shot. Same routine. That was it.”

Though not pleased with the final four minutes, UALR Coach Steve Shields wasn’t too disappointed with how his team played Monday, considering how the first meeting went Nov. 14 in Ruston, La.

Louisiana Tech won that game 70-52, while its pressure defense helped it score 24 points off 19 UALR turnovers.

But UALR slowed its pace against the press in the first half Monday. The result was just four first-half turnovers, including just one over the final 12 minutes before halftime, a stretch that included a 12-2 run that helped the Trojans to a 42-39 halftime lead.

“We stretched the floor; we were able to look over the top; we looked diagonally; we were able to get the ball in the middle,” Shields said. “I thought we did a much better job than we did down there.”

Michael White said UALR’s ability to handle his team’s press better than it did a month ago forced Louisiana Tech into a “softer man-zone” in the second half, the first time all season the Bulldogs have strayed from their preferred defense.

UALR also held Louisiana Tech to zero fast-break points, uncommon for a team that likes to create offensive opportunities off turnovers created by the press.

“That’s unheard of,” White said. “If you told me before the game we’d have zero fast break points, I’d tell you we’d probably score 45 [points].”

But 13 second-half turnovers, most described by Shields as unforced, and a 45-33 rebounding deficit prevented UALR from pulling away.

“I thought that was the difference in the game,” said Shields, whose team gave up 19 offensive rebounds to Louisiana Tech. “We’ve got to become a better rebounding team.”

Sports, Pages 17 on 12/18/2012

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