The Arkansas-Little Rock men's team built a 13-point second-half lead and survived a late comeback attempt to escape with a 60-56 win over Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville in the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams Thursday night at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.
Mwani Wilkinson scored a team-high 16 points and pulled down 6 rebounds to go with 2 steals and a block. UALR held SIU-Edwardsville to just 32.2% shooting from the field and 28.6% from three-point range.
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"As (Houston Coach) Kelvin Sampson said, when you can shoot 39% in the game and win the game, that's pretty good defense," UALR Coach Darrell Walker said following the win. "They scored 56 points, they average 70. (We're) having a tough time scoring sometimes because my guys are playing a lot of minutes because we're shorthanded and I hope that don't catch up with us."
Jordan Jefferson and Creed Williamson have each missed multiple games due to injury which has shortened the Trojans' rotation. Khalen Robinson was already ruled out for the season ahead of the first game with a knee injury. On Thursday, UALR played just seven players.
Ante Beljan and Isaiah Lewis each scored 13 points for the Trojans, while Johnathan Lawson recorded a double double, stuffing the stat sheet with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. The Trojans only shot 39% from the field, but did connect on 42.1% (8 of 19) of their three-point attempts.
"Guys shouldn't be playing 39, 37, 38 minutes," Walker said. "But at the end of the day, they have to play it and I'm going to tip my hat to them. I told them I was proud of them because they really guarded their butts off today. That was a dogfight all the way and I loved every minute of it."
UALR (7-5, 1-0) got off to a slow start offensively and SIU-Edwardsville managed to build a 20-14 advantage following a three-pointer from Brian Taylor II just over halfway through the first half. The opening 20 minutes featured one tie and four lead changes, but the Trojans closed the first half on a 16-2 scoring run in the final 8:40.
Two free throws from Lewis with 13 seconds left in the half gave UALR a 30-22 lead heading into halftime. Wilkinson hit 3 three-pointers and led all scorers with nine points at the break.
SIU-Edwardsville (7-5, 0-1) would draw as close as 35-31 at the 16:19 mark of the second half, but UALR responded quickly with a 9-0 run over the next three minutes. A jump shot from Beljan gave the Trojans their largest lead of the game at 44-31 with 13:19 remaining.
The Trojans would play from ahead the rest of the way, but the Cougars continued to chip away at the deficit into the final moments of the game. A mid-range jumper from Ring Malith with 2:25 left pulled the visitors to within 50-46.
With SIU-Edwardsville applying heavy pressure defensively, Lewis and Wilkinson connected on back-to-back three-pointers to extend the UALR lead back to eight points at 56-48 with 1:18 to play.
The game turned into a free-throw shooting contest in the final minute and for the second consecutive game the Trojans struggled to close out their opponent. Beljan, Lawson and Tuongthach Gatkek all missed at least one free throw inside the last minute.
With UALR leading 59-56 with less 10 seconds to play, the Cougars had an opportunity to force overtime, but a three-point attempt from Ray'Sean Taylor missed the mark and the Trojans were able to hang on for the victory. Taylor scored a game-high 18 points to lead SIU-Edwardsville
"I've liked what I'm seeing with my team," Walker said. "They're following the defensive game plan and that's very important. When we can rebound the basketball and not turn it over a lot, we're a pretty solid basketball team. But we're very shorthanded, make no mistake about that now. It's a good win."