***The Wrap***

[mad dog]

I heard on the radio coming over that NT hasn't won on January 20th since a 1980 win over Oral Roberts. I guess today's just never our day, because we still haven't won on 1/20.

Coming in, UALR was a very hot shooting team. By midway through the first, they really had been contained, though. Kudos to Coach Jones, who really had his team preparted to counter the presses the other guys were throwing at 'em.

UALR used a trap defense most of the way that forced our guys to play the middle of the floor, because, when we would go outside, they would send over two guys and use the boundary line as a third defender. So, unless we were REALLY crisp on passes, we'd get trapped against the line.

Our full court press, which has yielded such success in the past, was scouted so well tonight it was silly. Whenever we went into press mode, the UALR guys knew EXACTLY what to do, and, with practiced ease, cycled the ball up to a wide open guy in the offensive zone.

There was a seven point deficit created when UALR's Brandon Freeman went ape towards the end of the half, raining down a trio of three pointers and a clutch 16 footer at the buzzer. That created a 7 point deficit that followed us throughtout the second half like a plague, and ended up being the final score differential.

MVP:

Leonard Hopkins' free throw shooting (10-10)

Bright Spot:

Calvin Watson's clutch three pointer sparked a rally in the final minutes

It was over when:

Mike Jones' three point attempt clanged off the back of the rim with 30 seconds left.

WTF moment of the day:

The UALR coach got t-ed up for arguing a call that went his way. WTF???

Key Stats:

UNT shot 32 percent (19-58) from the field and 21 percent (4-19) from behind the arc. YUCK!

45/31 rebounding in favor of UALR, including a 30-20 on the defensive boards. YUCK!

Get this: 88% free throw shooting for the game. quite a step up from 40% at the TCU game, right?