Trojans cannot hang on following second-half collapse

Eastern Illinois rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit and defeated the University of Arkansas-Little Rock men 90-88 behind 31 points from Jordan Booker on Saturday afternoon at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

Trailing 88-85 with 7.4 seconds left in the game, Trojans guard Jamir Chaplin was unable to inbound the ball on the baseline and was called for a 5-second violation. The turnover gave possession back to the Panthers and Booker made two free throws with four seconds left to salt away the victory for Eastern Illinois.

“Jamir Chaplin knew that he had two timeouts and he didn’t call a timeout,” UALR Coach Darrell Walker said. “That’s something I’ll talk about when we get back to practice, but he was told he had two timeouts and held onto the basketball.”

Booker scored 24 of his 31 points in the second half, willing his team back into the game by creating a number of shots off the dribble and using his quickness to blow past defenders and draw fouls. Booker converted on all 10 of his free-throw attempts.

“He had an unbelievable game,” Walker said of Booker’s performance. “Played well, took us off the dribble all night and made some jump shots. He controlled the tempo for them. Really good player. I saw it on the film, but he was even better in person. He did a terrific job tonight.”

UALR (8-9, 2-2 Ohio Valley Conference) built a 43-31 lead in the first half following a layup from Khalen Robinson with 2:27 left in the half. The Trojans went into the halftime break holding a 48-41 advantage. Robinson scored 15 points in the first half and finished the game with 18 points and seven assists.

Eastern Illinois (8-8, 2-1) used an 11-0 second-half run that spanned 2:27 to tie the game at 64-64 on a layup from Kyndall Davis with 10:50 remaining. The contest went back and forth the rest of the way, but 17 total turnovers by the Trojans proved to be costly.

“We turned the ball over I don’t know how many times (9) in the second half,” Walker said. “They got 21 of their 90 points off of our 17 turnovers. If you shoot 55% from the field and 52% from the three at home, you should win a basketball game. We got some things that we have to address and clean up.”

A bright spot for UALR was the play of Bradley Douglas off the bench. The senior shot 6 of 8 from three-point range and finished with 18 points for the game. Chaplin scored 19 points and converted on 8 of 10 free throws. DeAntoni Gordon added 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

In just his third game of the season, University of Arkansas transfer Makhel Mitchell played 23 minutes off the bench. He had a key role in the game down the stretch, finishing with seven points and playing extended minutes late after Jaylen Crocker-Johnson fouled out at the 7:24 mark of the second half.

“He’s still trying to get his rhythm,” Walker said of Mitchell. “He hasn’t played in a long time, so there are some things out there that he is going to mess up. But at the end of the day, he’s a presence out there and he’s just going to keep getting better and better every game.”

Eastern Illinois made 18 field goals and scored 49 points in the second half. Aside from the heroics from Booker, Davis finished with 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

With UALR not having another game scheduled until next Saturday, Walker said he is planning to take full advantage of the extra time to get in some quality practices. He was clearly not satisfied with the second-half collapse.

“This is a tough loss, it’s going to be a long week for us and it’s going to be a long week of practice for the guys,” he said. “There is no sugar-coating it, that wasn’t a good performance at all. We got a week before we go play at Tennessee-Martin, so we will be in two-a-days all week.”

“There is no sugarcoating it, that wasn’t a good performance at all. We got a week before we go play at Tennessee Martin, so we will be in two-a-days all week.” UALR Coach Darrell Walker