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Saturday, February 23, 2002
UALR closes regular season
with 79-54 rout over FIU
 ick
Zachery led four Trojans in double figures with 21 points
and Mark Green had 16, all in the first half, of UALR's
79-54 Sun Belt Conference win over FIU Saturday in Little Rock,
Ark.
Rodrigo
Viegas led FIU (10-19, 4-10) with 19 points, five assists
and three steals, but the Golden Panthers ended the regular season
on a seven-game losing streak and its second-largest margin of
defeat this year.
UALR (17-10, 8-6), ranked No. 26 in the nation in field goal
percentage entering the contest, did nothing to hurt that ranking,
shooting 60 percent from the floor on 27 of 45 shooting, to go
along with 17 of 21 (.810) from the foul line.
The Trojans started the game on fire, hitting five of their
first six shots from the floor, including three 3-pointers, for
a quick 13-2 lead.
Later, on a pair of Green free throws, UALR seemed to be in
command, 26-14, with 6:35 to play in the half.
But like they've done all season, FIU picked up its defense
and put together an 11-0 run over the next three minutes and,
on a Slavcho
Slavtchev trey, closed to within one, 26-25.
But Zachery scored the next six points of the game, the first
four on steals and subsequent layups, and on a pair of Green
free throws with 39 seconds to go, pushed the UALR lead back
to nine, 34-25, at the break.
The second half was all UALR. While the Golden Panthers found
a way to neutralize Green, they couldn't stop Zachery who scored
12 points in the half, or senior Damion Ninkovic, playing
the last home game of his college career, who added 11 points
from down in the paint.
The Trojans led by as many as 30, the largest deficit during
a game this year against FIU, 73-43, with 4:54 left, and cruised
to the victory.
"We were outplayed in every phase of the game tonight,"
said a disappointed FIU head coach Donnie
Marsh. "I didn't think we competed, especially down
the stretch in the second half.
"This team was very strong and they attacked us where
we were weakest. We didn't show a lot of resistance in the post
and they did a good job of attacking us there especially when
we got it close in the first half. We weren't able to score again
in the half and that let them know that it really didn't matter
how close we got, they were somehow going to find a way to stretch
the lead."
One area where FIU had excelled all season was in the steals
department. The Golden Panthers led the Sun Belt Conference averaging
nearly 10 steals per game this season. But tonight, the team
managed only three steals, all by Viegas, and none by freshman
Carlos
Morban who stayed at 86 on the season, four behind fifth
place all-time in NCAA Division I for freshmen.
FIU now prepares for next weekend's Sun Belt Conference Championships
in New Orleans. The Golden Panthers first-round opponent will
be North Texas next Friday at 3:00 p.m. ET. All FIU tournament
games will be broadcast live on WAXY 790 AM. |