UALR's screen play stops Morris Brown

PETE PERKINS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

ATLANTA -- Players and coaches think differently.
Down two points at halftime, UALR's players said they weren't worried. The Trojans' coach said he was.
Worried or not, UALR adjusted, and followed a barrage of three-pointers to a 79-68 victory over the Morris Brown Wolverines before a crowd of 2,345 Tuesday night at John Lewis Gymnasium.
The Trojans (4-0) expected to see zone defense from Morris Brown (2-4), but not zone to the exclusion of all else.
"We really hadn't practiced a whole lot against the zone," UALR senior guard Laverne Smith said. "But we weren't worried. Our coaches told us what we had to do, and we knew everything would turn out the way it did."
"I was very concerned," Coach Porter Moser said. "I told the guys at halftime that I wasn't surprised the game was so close. I knew it was going to be a 40-minute battle. I wasn't surprised. We just had to make an adjustment. I credit the players for coming out and making the adjustment."
In the first half, which ended with Morris Brown up 32-20, UALR ran a zone offense that set screens on the perimeter. But with Morris Brown collapsing inside to protect the basket from senior forward Stan Blackmon, Moser decided screens would be more effective along the baseline.
"We were too passive against their zone in the first half," Moser said. "So we moved to a baseline cutter, screened the baseline, and let [senior guard] Alan [Barksdale] run side to side."
Barksdale would take passes deep in the corner, and pass inside to post players. With Morris Brown's defense pulled into the lane, UALR's post players passed to the perimeter.
The result was four consecutive three-pointers -- three from Barksdale, and one from Smith -- that drove UALR's lead from 42-39 to 51-41 with 11:17 to play.
"UALR just executed so well," Morris Brown Coach Russell Ellington said. "You can tell that they're very well coached. They came out in the second half with a great game plan, and they ran it perfectly. The key, I thought, were the screens their big men set. They set beautiful screens to get their outside shooters open, and then those guys just hit the shots."
"We got great screens," Barksdale said. "We were out there all alone, and it's pretty easy to hit shots when no one is on you."
Smith led UALR with 20 points, while Barksdale scored 16 and sophomore guard Mark Green 12.
Blackmon had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Twelve of Blackmon's points came on free throws, all in the second half, and all but four in the final six minutes as UALR quelled Morris Browns' comeback bid.
In UALR's three previous victories, Blackmon hit 16 of 22 field-goal attempts. Against Morris Brown, he hit 2 of 7.
"They were collapsing on us inside, so it was just a matter of getting the ball back out to Alan and Laverne and Mark," Blackmon said. "And that's fine with me. Sure, it feels good to score a lot of points, but it feels way better to win. It's a lot better feeling to win, whether I score any points or not."
Blackmon's three-point play with 6:17 left gave UALR a 68-51 lead.
The closest Morris Brown would get from that point was 76-66, with 35 seconds left, on a layup by senior guard Kavon Westberry.
Westberry led Morris Brown with 15 points. Senior forward Herbert Holmes scored 13, and sophomore Amien Hicks had 10.
Moser said he was worried about Morris Brown before he and the team flew in from Little Rock.
Morris Brown opened the season with a 70-62 home victory over Missouri-Kansas City. Missouri-Kansas City returned all of its starters from a team that defeated UALR 86-60. last season
"We knew they had beaten Missouri-Kansas City, and Missouri-Kansas City stomped us last year," Barksdale said. "But we came out and did exactly what we were told. You could say the key to the game were those three-point shots, or our pressure defense, but I think the key to the game was coaching. The coaches gave us a plan that we could win with."

This article was published on Wednesday, November 29, 2000

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