Saturday Night in the Sun Belt

Georgia State makes it twelve in a row, WKU wins a nip and tuck affair, UALR gets big points down the stretch, Arkansas State uses the perimeter to roll to a win and the Cajuns play lights out defense to snap a three game losing streak.

Here are the details from Saturday night’s Sun Belt action.

GEORGIA STATE 101, UT-ARLINGTON  91 (OT).  Devonta White drilled a 30 footer with less than one second remaining in regulation and Georgia State rallied to defeat Texas-Arlington 101-91 in overtime Saturday night in Atlanta and notch its twelfth straight win.

Georgia State got possession with 2.7 seconds remaining, trailing 82-79, before White hit the long bomb to rally the Panthers back from a sixteen point halftime deficit.

R. J. Hunter scored 31 for the Panthers (15-6. 8-0), while White made 15-17 free throws on the way to a career high 30 points.  Ryan Harrow added 20 for GSU.

Reger Dowell had 26 points, while Jamel Outler and Lonnie McClanahan each scored 20 points for the Mavericks (9-12, 4-5).

UTA made 13 three point shots, but missed  twelve free throws and suffered 22  turnovers.

Georgia State will entertain South Alabama Monday night in a game scheduled for Thursday which was postponed because of bad weather.

WESTERN KENTUCKY  68, TEXAS STATE 64:  T. J. Price scored on a layup with a minute remaining and WKU held on, making free throws down the stretch to defeat Texas State, 68-64.  The Bobcats (6-15, 2-6) held a three point lead at half and the second half remained tight before the Hilltoppers  (15=7. 7-2) took over. 

The game was tied nine times and had 22 lead changes.  WKU never led by more than four points.

George Fant scored 21 points to lead WKU while Price added 13 in front of the home crowd at E. A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green. 

Joel Wright led two Bobcats in double figures with eighteen points while Wesley Davis added 16.

UALR 62, SOUTH ALABAMA 58:  Will Neighbour scored 23 points and Josh Hagins got eight of his 18 points in the final 80 seconds to lead UALR to a 62-58 win over South Alabama at the Mitchell Center in Mobile.

Neighbour hit six of eight field goal attempts and 9-10 free throws  in the game.  Neighbour scored the first  two points before the first second ticked off the clock, as South Alabama’s Augustine Rubit was called for a technical foul for dunking the ball during pre-game warm-ups.

UALR (12-10, 7-3) went on an 11-0 run in the first half to take an 18-6 lead midway through the first half and led 30-22 at halftime.  But the Jaguars answered with a 13-2 run as USA (7-14, 1-7) took the lead, 43-40 with 12;51 remaining.  The game stayed close the rest of the way. 

Rubit and Antoine Allen each scored 14 points for South Alabama.

ARKANSAS STATE 83, TROY 73:  Arkansas State hit eleven three point baskets and shot  82% from the free throw line to defeat Troy at the Trojan Arena, 83-73.

The Red Wolves (12-8, 5-4) got three pointers from five different players, with Cameron Golden, Rakeem Dickerson and Townsell each getting three triples.  ASU was 24-29 from the free throw line.

The Red Wolves led  44-36 at the half.

Dickerson and Townsell each scored nineteen points for Arkansas State, while Golden added 18 and Melvin Johnson III chipped in eleven.

Troy (7-14, 2-7) also had balanced scoring, with Tevin Calhoun and Kevin Thomas scoring sixteen points each.  Antoine Myers had 14 points while Jeff Mullahey scored ten.  The Trojans, who have lost five in a row, made just 7-27 from beyond the arc.

LOUISIANA 66, UL MONROE 50:  Elfrid Payton scored 28 points to lead Louisiana to a 66-50 win over UL Monroe Saturday night at the Cajundome,

Tyler Ongwae was the only player in double figures for ULM (7-10, 4-5) with 18 points.

(NCAA box scores and information from sunbeltsports.org contributed to this report.)