Trojans’ last hope slips away in loss to Screaming Eagles

OHIO VALLEY CONF. MEN SO. INDIANA 82, UALR 81

For as many heartbreaking losses as the University of Arkansas-Little Rock men’s basketball team has suffered at the Jack Stephens Center in conference play this season — a 20-point lead surrendered against Lindenwood, a near-double-digit comeback versus Tennessee Tech and a 75-foot buzzer-beating heave by Southern Illinois-Edwardsville — there have also been thrilling wins.

While the Trojans again watched an opponent whittle away at a double-digit lead, they still had a shot at salvaging a victory Thursday night.

Then C.J. White slipped on a drive into the lane, the ball bouncing away from him as the final seconds ticked away, and yet another game landed in the category of crushing defeats.

Southern Indiana edged UALR for an 82- 81 win in Little Rock behind a gamehigh 27 points from Jacob Polakovich and 21 apiece from Jelani Simmons and Isaiah Swope. Together, Simmons and Swope shot 10 of 21 on three-pointers, helping the Screaming Eagles shoot 51.7% from the field and deliver critical buckets in the closing minutes.

“If you want to win, you’ve got to find a way to get a stop,” Trojans Coach Darrell Walker said. “We did not get one good defensive stop down the stretch. We made boneheaded plays, and that’s why we lost the game at the end of the day.”

For a minute, it seemed as if UALR (8-20, 4-11 Ohio Valley Conference) was going to give itself some breathing room. The Trojans went back to their late-game pick-androll with Myron Gardner and DeAntoni Gordon, and Gardner passed to a wide-open Isaiah Palermo for a basket to put UALR up 78-74 with 4:22 remaining.

Simmons immediately answered with a long three-pointer from the left wing, pulling Southern Indiana (15-13, 8-7) within 78-77 before the final media timeout.

A couple of possessions later, Swope drilled a corner three-pointer opposite the Screaming Eagles bench, handing Southern Indiana a lead it would not relinquish.

The Trojans clawed their way back after going down as many as four at 82-78, hitting three of four free throws to trail 82-81 with 16 seconds left. Tyler Henry then missed the front end of a one-and-one for Southern Indiana, giving UALR one final chance to eke out a win after leading by as many as 11 points in the game and eight in the second half.

But the turnover by White, who finished with 17 points to go along with 20 from Gordon, ended the Trojans’ hopes.

“I thought we played pretty good,” Walker said. “But at the end of the day, they shot 51% from the floor.”

While Walker didn’t want to speak specifically on his team’s postseason chances, UALR has no choice but to win Saturday against Eastern Illinois.

With a loss, the Trojans would be two games behind the eighth- place Panthers with two games remaining, and without the tiebreaker, UALR would have no chance to play its way to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in the regular season’s final week.

“We’ve had our chances all year to close games out as a young team and we haven’t made a step forward,” Walker said. “Until we do that, we’ll keep losing games.”