NEW ORLEANS, La.?Another cold-shooting second half plagued Arkansas State as the Privateers of New Orleans sent the Indians to their third straight defeat to close out the regular season, 62-58.
ASU (12-17, 7-7 Sun Belt Conference) for the second straight game couldn't sustain any consistent offensive attack in the second half. After shooting a respectable 45.2 percent in the first half on Saturday, the Indians dropped to 30.8 percent in the second half and started the first 4:20 of the second half without a point.
“I thought started the second half with very little intensity and focus,” said ASU head coach Dickey Nutt. “You can credit part of our slow start to New Orleans, but we've got to be able to overcome that and win these games.”
After toting a 33-26 lead in at halftime, the Indians started the second half missing every type of shot. UNO, with shooting woes of its own, slowly climbed back into the game and took the lead at 34-33 with 16:28 left to play when Jacob Manning connected on a jumper. ASU's first field goal of the second half wouldn't come until Dereke Tipler canned a jumper inside the arc with 15:20 left to finally get ASU on the board.
From there, ASU still had trouble finding the distance on any shot.
With ASU up one at 39-38, UNO went on a quick 7-0 spurt to take a six-point lead with 10:05 left to play. Jim Jones halted the run when, with 8:02 remaining, he connected on a floater just outside the lane to pull the Tribe back to within four.
Tipler followed that play with a layup and a pair of free throws to pull the score back to a tie at 45 with 7:32 remaining.
Neither team would lead by more than five the rest of the way and ASU would lead as late as 1:06 left. Yual Banks shot and missed a 3-pointer from the left wing but was fouled on the shot by Dusty Driggs. Banks canned two of the three free throws to put ASU up a pair at that point, 57-55.
But James Parlow's three from the right wing sank the Indians. A player that had connected on only one-of-eight shooting up to that point buried the three that did in the Indians.
“Parlow stepping out and hitting that 3-pointer after the shot clock ran down really stole the momentum from us,” said Nutt. “We still knew we were in the game, but we just couldn't overcome that three he hit.”
ASU remained ice-cold from behind the arc, hitting just four-of-18 from deep while hitting 30.2 percent from behind the arc the last three games, all three losses.
Tipler paced ASU with 18 points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and two more steals. Isaac Wells scored 13 points and hauled in 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Banks heated up after a slow start to hit a pair of threes and end with 12 points as the only other Indian to reach double figures. Jeremie Davis scored 20 points and Manning finished with 13 as the only UNO players to reach double digits.
“We finished well ahead of where we were picked, and I am very proud of how hard this team has fought to do that,” said Nutt. “We'll just take the three seed and see what we can do in the Sun Belt Tournament. We've got some work to do and some tired, banged-up players that need some rest, but we'll have them ready for our first game.”
ASU will enter the tournament as the East's three seed and face the West's sixth seed. There are still several possibilities for opponents, including the same UNO team that ASU just faced. Troy is another possibility along with an outside chance of facing North Texas. ASU will face the to-be-determined opponent on Friday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m.
