Thursday, January 21

Florida Atlantic 77, UALR 74
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) - Greg Gantt scored a career-high 29 points and Florida Atlantic overcame an early 10-point deficit, then held off Arkansas-Little Rock 77-74 on Thursday night.

The Owls (9-10, 5-3 Sun Belt Conference) trailed 37-27 with 57 seconds left in the first half and 37-32 at the break.

The Trojans (5-14, 1-7), who lost their ninth straight game, led 58-57 with 9:50 to go. Florida Atlantic then used a 15-4 spurt to pull ahead and still led by 10, at 75-65, with 3:52 left.

Arkansas-Little Rock cut it to one on a pair of Solomon Bozeman free throws with 40 seconds remaining. Alex Tucker hit two free throws for 77-74 and Bozeman missed a 3-point attempt with 1 second left.

Bozeman scored 21 to lead the Trojans, who outshot Florida Atlantic 49 percent (25-for-51) to 43.8 percent (28-for-64) from the field, but made just 9 of 15 from long range while the Owls were 13-for-24.

North Texas 86, South Alabama 78
DENTON, Texas (AP) - Eric Tramiel had a career-high 25 points and added 13 rebounds to lead North Texas to an 86-78 victory against South Alabama on Thursday night.

George Odufuwa had 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Mean Green (12-7, 5-4 Sun Belt), which had five players score in double figures.

Tim Williams and Bryan Sherrer scored 20 points each for South Alabama (12-8, 4-4).

A three-point play by Sherrer made the score 80-78 in North Texas' favor with 46 seconds remaining. But the Mean Green made all six free-throw attempts down the stretch, and Tramiel had a critical block of a 3-point shot attempt by Martino Brock.

Arkansas State 76, FIU 61
MIAMI (AP) - Brandon Reed scored 25 points to lead Arkansas State past Florida International 76-61 on Thursday night.

The Red Wolves (11-7, 6-1 Sun Belt Conference) used a 17-5 run to break the game open 5:42 into the second half.

Reed scored eight points during the spurt and Trey Finn's 3-pointer capped the run for a 50-36 Arkansas State lead with 14:18 remaining.

Florida International (6-16, 3-6) pulled within 54-47 on Stephon Weaver's field goal with 11:03 left, but didn't get any closer.

Marvin Roberts and Phil Gary scored 13 points each to lead Florida International.

The Golden Panthers coach Isiah Thomas returned Thursday following a two-game absence. Thomas left the team after the death of his mother, Mary Thomas, on Jan. 13. The Golden Panthers were 1-1 without Thomas.

Middle Tennessee 69, Louisiana-Monroe 60
MONROE, La. (AP) - James Washington scored 20 points, going 8-for-8 from the foul line in the final 1:10, to help Middle Tennessee State hold off Louisiana-Monroe 69-60 on Thursday night.

Desmond Yates scored 16 points, Calvin O'Neil had 12 and Montarrio Haddock added 11 for the Blue Raiders (10-10, 5-3 Sun Belt Conference).

Besides Washington's perfect performance at the foul line, O'Neil was 8-for-9 from the stripe for the Blue Raiders, who finished 23-for-26 (88.5 percent). The Warhawks were 16-for-22 from the free throw line (72.7 percent).

Middle Tennessee caused 22 turnovers.

The Blue Raiders led by 11 points at halftime and held on despite being outscored 39-37 in the second half.

Dynile Forbes and Lawrence Gilbert scored 14 points apiece for the Warhawks (8-12, 3-6).

The Blue Raiders have won back-to-back games, while the Warhawks had a two-game streak snapped.

Troy 77, WKU 69
TROY, Ala. (AP) - Brandon Hazzard scored 18 points to lead five Troy players in double figures as the Trojans defeated Western Kentucky 77-69 on Thursday night.

Yamene Coleman and Richard Delk added 14 points each as Troy (10-9, 5-3 Sun Belt Conference) shot 64 percent from the field (16-for-25) in the second half.

The Trojans broke away after the score was tied at 53 with 8:05 remaining.

Delk's 3-pointer capped an 8-0 run for a 65-57 lead with 5:47 left, but Steffphon Pettigrew's layup cut the lead to 65-61 with 3:55 to play.

Troy then scored the next six points to put the game out of reach at 71-61 on Hazzard's layup with 2:13 remaining.

Michael Vogler added 13 points and eight assists and Levan Patsatsia had 10 for Troy.

AJ Slaughter scored 20, Pettigrew added 14 and Caden Dickerson scored 13 for the Hilltoppers (11-7, 4-3), which led by nine points in the first half.

Louisiana-Lafayette 70, New Orleans 63
LAFAYETTE, La. - After trailing for nearly the entire first half, Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns used a 20-point run over a six-minute span in the second half that led to a 70-53 win over New Orleans Thursday evening at the Cajundome.

Before the scoring run started the Ragin’ Cajuns (7-11, 4-3 Sun Belt) trailed 36-29 with 16:50 remaining. When the run ended, on a Tyren Johnson jumper at 10:44, UL had opened a double-figure lead, 49-36.

Louisiana’s lead remained double figures until a triple by Devin McDonald at 4:35 pulled the Privateers (7-12, 2-6 Sun Belt) within seven points, 58-51.
Down 58-53, UNO had a chance to cut the lead to three points. UL responded with a pair of defensive stops and scored five unanswered before 2:00 to return the advantage to double figures.
Chris Gradnigo made 10 field goals for the second straight game and led all players with 23. Johnson added 21 points.

New Orleans was paced by the trio of Carl Blair with 12 points and Charles Carmouche and Ejike Hart with 10 apiece.

Louisiana shot 52.9 percent (18-of-34) and held UNO to 27.8 percent (5-of-18) in the decisive second stanza. After only six points in the paint in the first half the Cajuns poured in 22 in the second half.

The win was the Ragin’ Cajuns 13th straight over UNO in the Cajundome (now 16-11 in the facility vs. the Privateers). It also keeps UL undefeated (4-0) in the Cajundome in Sun Belt play.

The Privateers opened an 8-4 advantage at 15:30 after a baseline jumper from Johann Mpondo.

A 3-of-10 showing from the floor by UL through the first eight minutes kept the Privateers in the lead, 10-7 at the 11-minute media timeout.

After Gradnigo hit a jumper at 11:40 to make it 10-9, layups from Carmouche and Blair at 11:20 and 10:34, respectively, allowed UNO to increase its lead to 14-9.

Louisiana used an 8-0 run from 7:06 through 4:59 to erase a seven-point UNO lead and climb in front 22-21 following a pair of freebies from Johnson. The Privateers needed only one possession, getting a triple from Quincy Diggs at 4:33, to reclaim the lead.

The Cajuns got a three-point make from Randell Daigle at 2:53 to drop the lead to 28-25, but could muster only one more make before halftime and trailed 30-27 at the break.

UNO began the second half with a 6-2 run to up the lead to 36-29 by 16:50.

The Ragin’ Cajuns responded with their second 8-0 run of the contest, capped off by a Johnson triple on the right wing at 15:37, to pull ahead 37-36.

Johnson added the Cajuns’ next six points and after a Privateers turnover Gradnigo slammed home the ball to extend the string of unanswered points to 16 for a 45-36 lead with 11:55 remaining.

The Ragin’ Cajuns will host Troy on Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Cajundome for the final home game of January. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

Monday, January 18

Middle Tennessee 47, WKU 46
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) - James Washington hit a 3-pointer with 6 seconds left to give Middle Tennessee a 47-46 win over Western Kentucky on Monday night.

The Blue Raiders (9-10, 4-3 Sun Belt Conference), who led by as many as 13 points, 37-24, with 12:33 left, fell behind 44-41 on a 3-pointer by Western Kentucky's Desmond Yates with 2:31 remaining.

A.J. Slaughter tied it on a 3 with 2:11, before two free throws by Jeremy Evans put the Hilltoppers (11-6, 4-2) back on top, 46-44, with 1:22 to go.

The Hilltoppers then turned the ball over, setting up Washington's shot.

Yates scored 14 points and Montarrio Haddock added 11 for the Blue Raiders. Washington finished with nine for Middle Tennessee, which lost two in a row and four out of its last five heading in.

Steffphon Pettigrew scored 12 points and Slaughter finished with 11 for Western Kentucky.