JONESBORO — John Brady has struggled all season to figure out his Arkansas State basketball team.
If nothing else, the Red Wolves showed Thursday night they have a good sense of timing.
With first place in the Sun Belt West Division on the line, ASU scored the game’s first eight points, made eight of its first 10 shots and led by at least 10 points for almost all of an 86-62 dismantling of UALR in front of an announced crowd of 4,625 at the Convocation Center.
The victory left ASU a half game ahead of UALR in the West Division with two weeks left in conference play.
“If you’re going to play your best game of the year, you might as well do it against your rival at home in front of a great crowd and play for first place,” said Brady, whose team will face UALR once more during the regular season, March 2 at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
ASU (16-9, 10-6) shot 51 percent form the floor - its highest all year against a Division I team - held UALR to 37.7 percent shooting while forcing 18 turnovers. The Red Wolves took a 17-6 lead less than six minutes into the game, and they led by at least 10 points the rest of the way.
ASU’s victory tripped up a UALR team that seemed to have solved its road problems. UALR lost its first seven games on the road, but entered Thursday having won three consecutive games away from Little Rock.
Playing with a sick Will Neighbour, whose streak of 35 consecutive starts ended because of a stomach virus, UALR (15-11, 9-6) never was in sync offensively. It struggled to track ASU on the perimeter or slow Brandon Peterson and Kendrick Washington inside without fouling.
“We didn’t want them to feel like they could come in here and beat us,” ASU guard Trey Finn said. “We didn’t even want them to have that mind-set, so we wanted to jump on them from the start.”
The Red Wolves jumped out to an 8-0 lead less than two minutes into the game. Washington’s three-point play a minute into the game gave ASU a 3-0 lead, and the Red Wolves extended with a three-point by Finn, who finished with nine points, and Rakeem Dickerson’s layup off a steal.
UALR Coach Steve Shields called a timeout, but it didn’t help his team slow ASU, which used a 16-2 run in the first half to go up 38-15. ASU made 26 of 51 shots from the floor, including 8 of 17 three pointers, and made 26 of 32 free throws.
“I don’t think we had the poise we needed to have after the initial surge on their part,” Shields said.
Shields said he wasn’t sure how much Neighbour’s sickness had to do with the slow start. Neighbour came off the bench for the first time since last Jan. 21, entering the game with 14:22 left in the first half and UALR trailing 17-6. He was held to 5 points on 2-of-6 shooting and 6 rebounds.
“We definitely saw that he wasn’t at his peak,” Shields said. “You got to have enough depth to play through situations like that.”
ASU showed plenty, even when UALR made a surge early in the second half.
John Gillon, Leroy Isler and Ben Dillard each hit three-pointers in the opening six minutes of the second half to pull the Trojans within 52-40, but Ed Townsel, who had 15 points off the bench, made a three to spark a 12-0 run as ASU stretched its lead to 64-40 with 10:09 left.
Peterson finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Washington and Marcus Hooten had 11 each for the Red Wolves.
Things were going so well for ASU midway through the second half that Townsel threw up a shot, while falling out of bounds on the baseline, that sailed over the backboard, hit off the front of the rim, then off the backboard and went through the net as Townsel ended up in the stands.
ASU’s point total was its highest since an 87-70 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Dec. 27, and it was the type of all-around performance needed from an ASU team that has struggled to make enough shots - it entered shooting 40.5 percent from the floor - to win consistently.
ASU has won five of its past six games, and of its remaining four opponents, only UALR has a winning conference record.
“We’ve got a chance to beat the rest of the teams we play,” Brady said. “I’m not saying we’re going to do it, but we can do it. I think it was evident by how we played tonight that our team is capable.”
THURSDAY’S GAMES
Arkansas State 86, UALR 62 Florida Atlantic 84, W. Kentucky 78 South Alabama 88, La.-Lafayette 64 Troy 69, Fla. International 61 La.-Monroe 85, North Texas 73
SATURDAY’S GAMES All times Central
W. Kentucky at Fla. Int’l, 6:30 p.m.
Arkansas State at La.-Monroe, 7 p.m.
Middle Tennessee at UALR, 7 p.m.
North Texas at Troy, 7 p.m.
Fla. Atlantic at La.-Lafayette, 7:15 p.m.
Sports, Pages 19 on 02/15/2013