SUN BELT MEN : Wolves give fans second-half show
Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008
JONESBORO — The Arkansas State fans started on their feet. The Red Wolves gave them a reason to finish that way.
Arkansas State overtook Murray State in the second half and hung on for its second consecutive victory, 55-47, in a nonconference game before 2, 856 at the ASU Convocation Center on Wednesday night.
Arkansas State is rebuilding under new coach John Brady after going 10-20 last season while Murray State returns four starters and is picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference. But stubborn defense and rebounding in the second half gave the Red Wolves the edge as they reversed last year’s 81-67 loss at Murray State.
Things started slowly — Arkansas State didn’t score until there was 15: 06 left in the first half — but the Red Wolves beefed up their efforts around the basket in the second half to give the fans something to cheer about.
“They’re going to have to change the tradition here at ASU, standing up until the home team scores,” Brady said. “Those people got so tired most of them sat down after five minutes.”
The Red Wolves, on the other hand, showed plenty of energy.
Arkansas State turned a 17-15 first-half rebounding deficit into a 37-28 advantage, had a 16-4 edge in second-chance points and got 28 points from the bench to five for the Racers’ reserves. Brady said the defense, which came up with 20 turnovers leading to 14 points, was as good as he could hope for this time of year.
“I compliment our team to a man about playing hard and hustling and paying attention,” Brady said. “And we were doing all that in the first half but we didn’t get a lot done, particularly offensively. But we certainly played hard for 40 minutes and hustled and tried to do the things that were necessary to win the game. Our team showed some fight and that’s a good sign.”
The Red Wolves took their first lead when senior forward Shawn Morgan passed to Jeremy Thomas and Thomas banked in a shot from the left to make it 39-38 with 8: 47 to go. The lead changed hands twice, with Arkansas State going back in front 41-40 on Morgan’s layup with 8: 02 left. The Red Wolves then began to pull away and took their biggest lead, 49-43, when Morgan took Donald Boone’s lob and scored with 3: 18 left.
The Racers got within four twice, but could get no closer and Ifeanyi Koggu wrapped it up with two free throws that made it 55-47 with 59. 3 seconds left as Murray State was forced to foul.
“We just felt like in the second half we had to buckle down and get some things done,” Morgan said.
Brady didn’t change much at halftime, other than putting Boone on Racers leading scorer Danero Thomas, who scored four of his 16 points in the second half, and telling his players to try to drive to the basket more and draw fouls. That resulted in the Red Wolves going 18 of 26 from the free-throw line compared with a 6-of-7 night by Murray.
“I’ll have a receptive team tomorrow,” Brady said. “They’ll be a little more attentive to the old coach about what he’s going to say because it worked tonight. If you get that kind of credibility with our players you’ve got a chance to maybe do something.”
Boone led the Red Wolves (2-1 ) with 16 points and Morgan scored 15 and joined Mike Lance as the rebounding leader with eight. Ivan Aska added 13 points for Murray State (1-1 ).
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