The UALR men's basketball team never trailed in regulation on Sunday, yet found itself heading to overtime with Cal State-Northridge.
The Trojans never led during the five-minute overtime period, but extended the game into a second overtime, where it gutted out a 94-88 victory.
Credit UALR's depth for its ability to persevere in Sunday's final day of Maui Invitational regional games at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
James White led UALR with 18 points and 13 rebounds, one of five UALR players to score 10 or more points and one of eight who played 19 minutes or more as it wore down the undermanned Matadors.
Cal State-Northridge, coached by former NBA All-Star Reggie Theuss, had four players foul out and needed five to play 34 minutes or more.
When it was over, Coach Steve Shields might have learned a bit about his team with Sunday's victory, which came a day after a second-half rally earned it a victory over Missouri-Kansas City.
"The biggest thing is our resiliency," Shields said. "That's something that you've got to have if you're going to win close games.
"That's when you've got to have good toughness and good togetherness."
UALR (3-1) showed that in the second overtime after blowing a second-half lead that extended to eight on several occasions.
The Matadors took a three-point lead in the first overtime, before Maurius Hill and Ben Dillard combined to make three free throws in the final minute to force a second extra period.
There, a Roger Woods basket inside followed by a White tip-in and a J.T. Thomas jumper gave UALR a 90-86 lead en route to posting its third victory in four games, its best start in four seasons.
"We were pretty confident along the way," said Thomas, who played the entire second half and both overtimes while scoring 17 points. "One thing we just wanted was to be the tougher team, just stay with it, stay consistent, try to win every possession."
The Trojans failed to close out the Matadors (2-3) when they could have in the second half.
Cal State-Northridge tied the game at 48-48 six minutes into the second half, and UALR outscored Northridge 12-4 to seemingly take control. Two Gus Leeper free throws and a Thomas basket inside put the Trojans up 60-52 with 10 minutes left.
UALR still led 64-56 with less than six minutes left and 69-65 with 1:25 left. That's when Aaron Parks made the first of two free throws and after he missed the second, Tre Hale-Edmerson made a putback to get within 69-67. Hale-Edmerson scored inside to tie the game after a White miss for UALR, and Josh Hagins' last-second three was short sending the game to overtime.
"We were playing good basketball," guard Ben Dillard said. "We just had some turnovers here and there and some lapses on offense that allowed them to make some shots and they had a couple of big buckets. Some lapses on the defensive end allowed them to get into it."
UALR twice rallied from down three points in the first overtime when Maurius Hill and Dillard made three free trows in the final minute to send the game to a second overtime.
At that point, Cal State Northridge had lost three players to fouls, and lost a fourth, Devonte Elliott, in the middle of the second overtime as the Trojans took over to win a close game for the second consecutive day.
"You have to start somewhere," Dillard said. "You can't win the fourth game without the third, and 3-1 sounds a lot better than 2-2. We just have to stack up wins; we got two this weekend -- two good team wins -- just going to continue it."
SWAC MEN
CENTRAL MICHIGAN 75,
ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 43
Central Michigan outscored Arkansas-Pine Bluff 24-2 during one first-half stretch and made 15 three-pointers in its victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Seven Central Michigan players made three-pointers, with Braylon Rayson making 4 of 6 while scoring 18 points and Josh Kozinski making 3 of 8 to finish with 9 points.
JoVaughn Love led UAPB (1-4) with 16 points, while Tevin Hammond finished with 12. UAPB shot 32.7 percent from the field and made 1 of 13 three-pointers.
Central Michigan (4-0) shot 43.5 percent from the floor, and made 12 of 20 shots in the second half.
Sports on 11/24/2014