More Upsets Saturday in the Sun Belt

It's been said many times that winning on the road in college basketball is the toughest thing to do in sports.

Evidently the Sun Belt Men's basketball teams didn't get the memo.

Sun Belt road teams are 11-6 in conference road games this season, with two more visitors winning yesterday.

Here's what happened around the league Saturday, January 11th.

LOUISIANA 90, UT-ARLINGTON 70--Four players scored in double figures to lead the Cajuns (10-5, 1-1 Sun Belt) to their first league win, an easy 90-70 win over Texas-Arlington.  Trailing 8-7, the Cajuns went on a 14-0 run to take a 13 point lead and the Mavericks never got any closer than nine.  The Cajuns led by 18 points at halftime and expanded the lead to as many as 27 in the second half.  Shawn Long had 22 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots to lead the Cajuns, while Kasey Shepherd added 17, and Xavian Rimmer and Elfrid Payton scored 12 each.  Payton also had seven assists.  Lonnie McClanahan set a career high with 27 points, 23 in the second half for UTA (6-10, 1-3).

TROY 75, UALR 62--After starting 0-2, Troy finished its weekend sweep of the state of Arkansas by beating UALR 75-62 at the Stephens Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Tevin Calhoun, who scored a career high 35 points in the win over Arkansas State on Thursday, tied Jeff Mullahey for scoring honors with 17 points each.  Troy (7-9, 2-2) made ten three point shots in the contest and outrebounded UALR (8-8, 3-1) by 13. Will Neighbour scored 15 for UALR, who made only 4-23 from the three point line.

TEXAS STATE 61, ULM 36--Texas State got its first ever Sun Belt win by rolling over Louisiana-Monroe 61-36 at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.  Joel Wright had fourteen points and ten rebounds to lead the Bobcats (5-11, 1-2).  Texas State held the Warhawks without a field goal for nine minutes in the second half.  ULM could only manage nine second half points.  Tyler Ongwae had twelve points to lead the Warhawks in scoring.  ULM (4-7, 1-2) was just 3-23 from the field in the second half.

ARKANSAS STATE 72, SOUTH ALABAMA 60--Kirk Van Slyke scored 21 points to go along with 14 rebounds to lead the Red Wolves at the Convocation Center in Jonesboro.  ASU (10-5, 3-1) led by double digits the final twelve and a half minutes of the contest. Ed Townsell also had a double double for the Red Wolves.  USA (3-11, 0-4), picked to finish second in the league, has lost seven in a row and is winless on the road this season.

WKU and Georgia State had the night off.

THIS WEEK IN THE SUN BELT

MONDAY--Texas State at Louisiana

THURSDAY--Arkansas State at Georgia State, Louisiana at South Alabama, ULM at Troy, UALR at Western Kentucky

SATURDAY--Louisiana at Troy, UTA at Texas State,  Arkansas State at Western Kentucky, UALR at Georgia State, ULM at South Alabama

(information from sunbeltsports.org contributed to this story.)