THURSDAY, MARCH 1
Varnado leads Troy to 83-70 upset of Georgia State
ATLANTA -- Jordon Varnado scored 26 points as Troy took control in the second half to upset Georgia State 83-70 on Thursday night.
Troy (15-15, 9-8) is in a battle for the fourth and final first-round bye in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament which opens March 7 in New Orleans. The Trojans currently are tied with Louisiana-Monroe in fifth place a half-game behind UT Arlington, which concludes its regular season Friday. The Trojans will wrap up their season at Georgia Southern on Saturday.
Georgia State (20-10, 11-6), which has lost four of its last five games after winning 10 in a row, has already clinched the No. 2 seed in the tourney.
Varnado was 10 of 19 from the floor with eight rebounds. Kevin Baker drilled 5 of 8 from distance to total 17 points and Alex Hicks added 12 while pulling down 11 rebounds.
The Panthers drained 7 of 14 from distance in the first half to tie the school record of 276 3-pointers made in a season and took a 42-38 lead into intermission. They totaled 10 of 27 treys for the game.
Trailing 42-38 Varnado slammed home a dunk to start the second half and kick off a 19-5 run to give the Trojans a 57-47 lead with 13:54 remaining. The Trojans continued the push until they took a 73-57 lead at the 6:38 mark.
D'Marcus Simonds led the Panthers with 27 points and Devin Mitchell scored 14.
Louisiana-Monroe holds off Little Rock for 48-44 win
MONROE, La. -- Marvin Jean-Pierre drained a trey in the final minutes to give Louisiana-Monroe just enough cushion to hold off Little Rock 48-44 on Thursday night.
Michael Ertel followed Jean-Pierre's 3 with a jumper for a 44-38 advantage before Anthony Black and Oliver Black scored six straight points to tie at 44-44 with 1:54 left. Ertel, Sam McDaniel and Brandon Newman combined to make 4 of 6 free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Little Rock failed to score after Oliver Black's final jumper.
Travis Munnings scored 21 points to lead ULM (15-13, 9-8) which is battling for the coveted No. 4 seed and a first-round bye in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The Warhawks are tied with Troy and UT Arlington for fourth place with one game remaining before the tournament starts on March 7.
The Warhawks led 19-18 at halftime as neither team could get shots to fall with Little Rock making eight from the floor compared to seven for the Warhawks. ULM was 4 of 22 from distance. Travis Munnings scored over half the ULM points in the first half, making 4 of 9 field goals for 11 points. He was 2-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Oliver Black led Little Rock (6-24, 3-14) with seven points and nine rebounds as no Trojan hit double figures.
Georgia Southern beats South Alabama 81-74
STATESBORO, Ga. -- Tookie Brown scored 18 points to go along with 8 rebounds and 8 assists as Georgia Southern held off South Alabama 81-74 on Thursday night.
Mike Hughes scored 19 for the Eagles (19-11, 10-7 Sun Belt), and Montae Glenn added 17 points and 10 rebounds. Georgia Southern moved into third place in the conference standings, one game ahead of idle UT Arlington.
Brown set the Eagles' single-season record for free throws attempted, shooting 16 to bring his total to 209.
The Eagles led by just three at halftime.
Little stood between the teams for much of the second half before a 12-5 Georgia Southern run put the Eagles up nine with 6:39 to go. South Alabama answered with a 10-2 run to trim its deficit to 65-64 with four minutes left. After a Hughes jumper put the Eagles back up by six with 1:18 remaining, the Jaguars (14-16, 7-10) were forced to foul. Georgia Southern hit 8 of 10 free throws down the stretch to close it out.
Louisiana gets record 26th win, beats Arkansas State 85-74
LAFAYETTE, La. -- Frank Bartley IV scored 18 points and Bryce Washington added 15 as Louisiana prepped for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament by getting a school-record 26th win, an 85-74 victory over Arkansas State on Thursday night.
Louisiana (26-4, 16-1), which is 14-0 at home, has the No. 1 bye in the tournament after claiming its first regular-season title since sharing the 1999-2000 title with South Alabama and its first outright title since joining the conference in 1991-92.
Bartley drilled 3 of 6 from distance to make 5 of 9 from the floor with four assists. JaKeenan Gant added 12 points and Marcus Stroman chipped in eight points while dishing out eight assists.
The Ragin' Cajuns closed out the first half on a 27-14 run to lead 48-36 at the break and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second period. Louisiana drained 10 of 21 attempts from long range with the Red Wolves making just 1 of 5 attempts.
Ty Cockfield had 25 to lead Arkansas State (10-20, 5-12). Tristin Walley added 14 points with six rebounds.
FRIDAY, MARCH 2
Hervey drains game-winner at buzzer, UTA wins 85-82
SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Kevin Hervey was calmly facing a defender as the final seconds were ticking away in a tied game, quickly shifted right to open some space and launched a deep 3-pointer that swished through the net as the buzzer sounded, lifting UT Arlington to an 85-82 victory over in-state rival Texas State Friday night.
The game-winning shot was a first for Hervey. He scored 22 points as did Erick Neal and UT Arlington (19-2, 10-8 Sun Belt Conference) kept alive its hopes to finish in the top four for next week's Sun Belt tournament in New Orleans.
The Mustangs made only eight 3-pointers and Hervey had four of them, along with seven rebounds and five steals. Neal hit three 3s. Johnny Hamilton scored 15 points with 11 rebounds
A Hamilton dunk extended the UT Arlington lead to seven points with 46 seconds left. Texas State dug in and tied the game, 82-82, with 17 seconds left when Tre Nottingham hit his second 3-pointer in 29 seconds.
Nijal Pearson led the Bobcats (14-17, 7-11) with a career best 31 points.