Trojans win on road again

A team that couldn’t win on the road a week ago has suddenly got the hang of it.

The UALR men’s basketball team outscored North Texas 20-9 over an eight-minute stretch of the second half and went on to win 62-57 Saturday at the Super Pit in Denton, Texas.

It was the Trojans’ second consecutive road victory — they won at Western Kentucky on Jan. 19 — after they lost their first seven games this season played on an opponent’s home floor.

The victory kept UALR with a 11/2-game lead over Arkansas State, which beat Florida Atlantic on Saturday, for first place in the Sun Belt Conference West Division.

“We’re getting to where we handle adverse situations a little bit better,” UALR Coach Steve Shields said. “There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I think this was another step forward.”

The Trojans ( 14- 9, 8- 4) were outrebounded 37-31 and committed 16 turnovers, both of contriubuted to them giving up a nine-point lead.

UALR led 28-19 with 4:55 left in the first half after Josh Hagins’ three-pointer, and, after holding a 32-25 halftime lead, still led 35-28 with 15:52 left.

But that’s when North Texas (8-14, 3-8) went on a run similar to those that led to road losses earlier this season, outscoring UALR 9-0 over a 4:04 stretch to take the lead.

North Texas’ Jordan Williams made two free throws, then after a missed threepointer by UALR’s Kemy Osse, Niko Stojilkovic made two more free throws. UALR’s Stetson Billings then missed a jumper and Jordan Williams’ three-pointer with 11:48 left gave the Mean Green a 37-35 lead.

But Hagins answered with a jumper, John Gillon made a three-pointer to give UALR the lead back at 40-37 and Will Neighbour followed with a jumper to get the lead to 4237 with 10:09 left.

From there, North Texas got within four points three times but UALR answered with baskets.

It came two days after Florida Atlantic outscored UALR 19-0 to take a 33-11 first-half lead in an eventual 65-62 victory in Little Rock.

“We’re not perfect by any stretch,” Shields said, who praised his team for responding to the runs of Florida Atlantic and North Texas. “Earlier in the year we struggled to answer those. That’s where we’re getting better as a team.”

UALR outscored the Mean Green 20-9 from the time North Texas took a 3735 lead, a run that lasted 8:47 and included UALR making 8 of 12 shots, capped by James White’s layup that made it 5546 with 3:01 left.

Neighbour, Hagins and White had 11 points each for the Trojans, who had nine players score.