JONESBORO, Ark. (2/5/15) – The Arkansas State men's basketball team (9-13, 4-9) outscored Troy by 13 points in the second half, but couldn't overcome a slow start in a 69-64 Sun Belt Conference setback against the Trojans (9-12, 4-8) Thursday night at the Convocation Center.
Three players scoring in double figures for the Red Wolves, including junior guard Sean Gardner with a game-high 20 points, led the Red Wolves. Adding 13 points each for A-State were junior guard Cameron Golden and sophomore forward Anthony Livingston, who also collected a team-high eight rebounds.
Troy was able to build a 42-24 halftime advantage and extended its lead to as much as 20 points, its largest of the game, early in the second half. While the Red Wolves were able to chip away at the score and pull within 53-42 at the 8:47 mark, the game then went back-and-forth for the next seven-plus minutes.
Still trailing by 11 points, 67-56, with 1:15 remaining, the Red Wolves made one final push that came up short while setting the final margin at five points.
A-State's shooting percentage increased in the second half while Troy's dropped, but the Red Wolves still finished with a .439 percentage in comparison to the Trojans' .490. Troy also held a 40-24 advantage on the boards and outscored A-State in the paint 30-26.
Troy was able to open up a double-figure lead early in the contest, taking a 17-6 advantage with 12:30 to play when Musa Abdul-Aleem hit the Trojans third three-point bucket of the game. Troy was able to extend its lead to 32-15 with 5:01 left in the half, but A-State put together a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to pull back within 32-22.
However, the Trojans outscored the Red Wolves 10-2 the remainder of the half to take an 18-point lead into the break. Troy made four of its five total three-point baskets in the first half, shot 51 percent from the floor and hit all four of its free throw attempts to help it build the lead.
Troy played just seven players, but five of them scored in double figures. The Trojans were led by Abdul-Aleem with 17 points, while Kevin Thomas followed with 16.
Arkansas State returns to action Thursday, Feb. 12, with a 6:30 p.m. road game at Georgia Southern.
POSTGAME QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY
Media: Coach your team fought to the end. You were down 20 in the second half, you get it down to 5 at the end but you just ran out of time.
Coach: The first 20 minutes it looked like we haven't practiced in a week. We were sleep walking, weren't very aggressive and just played poorly the first half. We played a little bit the second half, more aggressive, the press worked pretty good, turned them over, and were able to make a game out of it. It's disappointing where we are and how we played the game the first 20 minutes when this game was important for us. Our team doesn't trust each other. It's a strange situation for us. We have two or three players that didn't play the first half that we had planned on to play. We got going the second half and we made a game out of it. Our players, at least we didn't throw it in, we battled the second half and looked like a team, ran some decent offense, guarded a little bit better. The first half we didn't rebound; it looked like we were dead. It looked like we hadn't practiced and that was really disappointing.
Until our team gets over itself and really trust and believes in each other we are going to be inconsistent. We were so inconsistent in two halves tonight it was unacceptable. I appreciate the fans staying through the second half and seeing it out. It's not where I want it to be for sure. That's what we talked about; I'm not upset far as I am disappointed in our team not accepting responsibility to do better. We point fingers and want to hide and dance and not hit it but you have to accept responsibility. Coaches, players have to get over self and get better, second half we were better.
Georgia Southern is not going to be a good place to go get it right. That's going to be something but we are going to come in here tomorrow and work pretty good. We are going to take off Saturday and Sunday then go at it Monday and Tuesday. We have seven games left and we are bunched in there with four or five people that have four or five wins. It's up to us to finish it out. We missed a golden opportunity, too bad, but we have to keep fighting, keep battling, keep encouraging and keep teaching and hopefully our team will get some cohesiveness about it and comrade about it and trust each other and sustain quality play. And until we get that we go from no fight the first half to some fight the second half. How do you explain that? I wish I knew a real concrete answer for you. There are a lot of reasons maybe, but there's no reason to get into that now. What you have to do is figure out where you are and how to get better in the satiation you are in.
