JONESBORO (1/3/09) – Junior guard Donald Boone scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Arkansas State men's basketball team (10-4, 2-1) to a 71-56 Sun Belt Conference victory over New Orleans (6-8, 2-2) Saturday night at the Convocation Center in front of a crowd of 3,497.
The Red Wolves improved to 7-0 at home and moved into a three-way tie for first place in the Sun Belt's West Division early in the conference season. Just 14 games into the 2008-09 campaign, ASU's 10 wins matches its total for all of last season.
Boone reached at least 20 points in a game for the third time this season and senior forward Shawn Morgan came off the bench to score eight points and grab a game-high 10 rebounds to pace the Red Wolves attack. Freshman guard Daniel Bryant and junior forward Eric McKinney added nine and eight points for ASU, respectively.
Kyndall Dykes hit a layup at the 12:52 mark of the first half to give the Privateers an early 15-6 advantage, their largest of the game, and held an eight-point lead, 22-14, with 6:34 remaining. Capped by a Morgan layup at the buzzer, ASU responded with an 11-2 run to close the first half and take a 25-24 lead at the intermission period.
ASU continued its surge early in the second half with three quick unanswered buckets over the first two minutes to build a 31-24 lead. UNO was able to pull back within 38-35 at the 14:06 mark and kept it a one-possession game for most of the next four minutes, but never took the lead in the second half.
Leading 42-39, ASU mounted a quick 7-0 run to take its first double-figure lead of the game and didn't let the Privateers get closer than eight points the rest of the way.
After shooting just 36 percent in the first half, ASU heated up to shoot 76 percent in the second half and finish with a .488 percentage to the Privateers .392. While ASU pulled down 13 rebounds to UNO's eight in the second half, the Privateers still finished with a 33-28 advantage on the boards.
“I was really proud of our team, particularly the way it played the second half,” said ASU Head Coach John Brady. “We shot almost 77 percent from the floor, made 23-of-27 from the free throw line and on the other end we held them under 40 percent shooting for the game. I thought going in at half time, if we just slowed down offensively and took care of the ball a little bit better, and at least made the layups and free throws, we could have had a six to nine point lead at the half. Our team responded and I was proud of them. I think everyone that played had moments of quality play.”
The Red Wolves took advantage of 20 UNO turnovers, scoring 23 points off the Privateers' miscues. ASU's Boone finished with a career-high seven steals and sophomore forward Jeremy Thomas was responsible for a career-high three steals as the Red Wolves finished with a season-tying 13 steals as a team.
Arkansas State will begin a two-game Sun Belt Conference road swing Thursday, Jan. 8 at Denver in an 8:00 p.m. (CT) game. The Red Wolves will then face North Texas in Denton at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10.
