JONESBORO (1/5/08) ? The Arkansas State men's basketball team used a strong second half to turn a close game at halftime into a convincing 77-62 victory over in-state rival Arkansas-Little Rock Saturday night in front of a crowd of 4,126 at the Convocation Center.

The Indians evened their overall and Sun Belt Conference records to 7-7 and 2-2, respectively, with their seventh consecutive win at the Convocation Center and head coach Dickey Nutt became just the second coach in Sun Belt Conference history to win 100 league games.

UALR fell to 10-4 overall and dropped their first Sun Belt Conference game in three outings.  ASU extended its winning streak against the Trojans to five games.

Senior forward Kewain Gant scored 14 of his career-high 16 points and sophomore guard Ryan Wedel 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, helping ASU outscore UALR 48-32 over the game's final 20 minutes.  Gant also recorded three second-half blocks to tie his season high.  ASU shot 67 percent in the second half, while holding the Trojans to a .300 shooting percentage.

ASU went on a 14-0 run to start the second half, holding UALR scoreless for the first five minutes to take a 43-30 lead.  The Indians held a double-figure lead the rest of the night, actually extending its advantage to as much as 22 points, 70-48, with 4:27 remaining.

“I am very proud of our team,” said Nutt.  “I thought we played with a lot of intensity and passion today.  A lot of players stepped up for us, but Kewain Gant had an especially outstanding performance with the way he played both offensively and defensively.  We really believe that we can emerge as a stronger team with him playing that way.  But again, we had a lot of players that performed very well tonight.”

UALR took an 8-7 lead, its first of the game, at the 14:52 mark of the first half and pushed its lead to 25-11 with 6:47 to go before the half.  However, the Indians outscored the Trojans 18-5 the rest of the first half to pull within 29-30 at the break and set up their big second half.

The Indians became just the third team to score over 70 points against UALR and finished with a .574 shooting percentage against a team that was holding its opponents to just a .370 shooting percentage entering the game.  UALR dominated the boards 42-28, but shot just 34 percent for the game.

Joining Wedel and Morgan with double-figure points were senior guard Adrian Banks and junior forward Yima Chia-Kur with 16 and 12 points, respectively.  Morgan also finished with a team-high eight rebounds and added six assists and four steals.