Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Home sweet win for Trojans
OHIO VALLEY MEN UALR 88, TENN.-MARTIN 74
Having a different home Thursday night had multiple meanings for the University of Arkansas-Little Rock men’s basketball team.
Yes, there was the Trojans’ new conference home — UALR was playing its first-ever league game as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference.
But the Trojans were also playing in their old home arena, returning to North Little Rock’s Simmons Bank Arena for the first time since 2009 due to a ruptured water coil at the Jack Stephens Center a few miles away.
Either way, an unfamiliar setting didn’t seem to bother UALR as it rolled past Tennessee-Martin 88-74 behind a combined 58 points from Myron Gardner, Jordan Jefferson and DeAntoni Gordon.
The Trojans led by as many as 27 points before a 19-3 Skyhawk surge over nearly five minutes got them as close as 11 inside the final three minutes.
“We got lackadaisical a little bit at the end and kind of let them get a little run,” UALR Coach Darrell Walker said postgame. “We’ve got a young team and I told them, ‘You’ve got to learn to close the game out when you’ve got a lead. Don’t let teams back in.’ ”
A big part of why the Trojans had the opportunity to coast to the finish line was because of the work they did over the first 30-plus minutes. UALR (5-9, 1-0 Ohio Valley) shot 15 of 30 from the field in the opening half, getting 15 points from Jefferson and 16 from Gardner before the break.
Since losing at Arkansas State a week ago, Walker emphasized conditioning with the Trojans, and it showed on both ends of the floor. UALR forced Tennessee-Martin into 15 turnovers during the first 20 minutes and the Trojans were willing to use those opportunities to run and ultimately convert on offense.
“We’ve been emphasizing getting into our offense quicker getting ready for conference play,” Gardner said. “We’re a physical team, so we’ve got to use our physicality to our advantage. … [That and] really keeping our tempo up, that’s what got us going.”
Walker came away feeling as if his team could’ve held the Skyhawks in the 60s, but he’d identified that, like the Red Wolves, Tennessee-Martin (8-6, 0-1) wanted to play off the dribble.
As a result, UALR played a 1-3-1 zone for much of the night and held the visitors to 23-of-64 shooting.
“I told my team from the beginning, ‘We can’t lose any games at home,’ ” Walker said. “‘We’ll be back [on campus next week], but right now, Simmons Bank is home and we’ve got to win this game.’ ”