Men's Basketball: Troy Holds Off UALR, 63-58

Troy put some big-time heat on UALR early, before the expected heated rally from the home team would come. The early burst to start the game and UALR's offensive tentativeness throughout allowed Troy to win the battle of Trojans 63-58 on Saturday night at the Jack Stephens Center.

Troy is red-hot in the Sun Belt Conference after its fourth straight win, pushing its record to 6-3 in the league's East Division and 11-10 overall. UALR's first league stumble at home left the Trojans 7-2 and still atop the SBC West Division, and 14-6 overall with a Sun Belt swing through Florida upcoming. The Trojans aren't home again until Feb. 7 against Denver.

"They came out and threw the first punch and we didn't respond very quickly," UALR coach Steve Shields said.

Troy, behind scorching shooting from guards Richard Delk and Brandon Hazzard scored the game's first 12 points, and UALR didn't scratch until nearly five minutes had been played. Troy held 17-point leads at 22-5 and 24-7 and led 28-14 with 7:52 left in the half before the home team came to life, sparking its offense with its aggressive man-to-man defense.

Senior forward Shane Edwards was nearly otherworldly in keying a UALR rally that got the Trojans to within five, 33-28, at the break.

But UALR's offense went back into a shell and managed just seen points for nearly 12:30 of the second half. All that kept UALR within striking distance was that Troy wasn't as hot as in the early portion of the game.

"You'd like to think with the momentum going into the locker room that that wouldn't be the case," Shields said as to whether his team had expended too much late in the first half in cutting the deficit down.

But UALR started the second half with six turnovers in the first 3:30. Troy built its lead back up to 13, and UALR would only get as close as five points the rest of the way.