By JOE ANGOLIA
UALR sports information
JONESBORO— Senior Shane Edwards hit a jumper in the lane with 2.3 seconds remaining to lead the UALR men’s basketball team (18-6, 11-2) to a 58-57 win over Arkansas State (13-11, 5-8) at the Convocation Center on Thursday night.
The win over ASU marked the Trojans’ ninth victory in the team’s last 10 outings, and extended their road winning streak to a school-record six games.
After trailing for the entire game, ASU took its first lead of the night, 57-54, off a three-point play by JeJuan Brown with 31.4 seconds remaining.
Junior Mike Smith pulled UALR within one, 57-56, by sinking a pair of crucial foul shots with 20 seconds to go.
Leading 57-56, the Red Wolves committed a turnover on the ensuing inbounds play when Daniel Bryant lost control of the ball in front of UALR’s goal with 15.3 seconds left.
Down by one, the Trojans got the ball to Edwards and the native of Gilbert, Ariz., backed his defender into the paint and delivered his second game winner of the year — the first of which came at South Alabama.
Edwards led all scorers with 16 points off 6-of-13 shooting, and tied senior Brandon Patterson for team-high honors with six rebounds. Sophomore Matt Mouzy chipped in 13 points, 11 of which came in the second half, by going 5-of-9 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range.
The victory was the 100th of head coach Steve Shields’ career, making him just the third coach to win 100 games as head coach of the Trojans. Bryant led the Red Wolves with 10 points off the bench, while Eric McKinney grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to help ASU outrebound the Trojans 42-to-40.
The Trojans shot just 37.9 percent for the game, but held the Red Wolves to a .333 field goal percentage.
UALR got two clutch free throws from Smith and the game winner from Edwards to pick up its 11th conference victory.
North Pulaski alum Steven Moore did not play due to illness.
UALR returns to action today when it faces the ULM Warhawks in Monroe, La.
