Trojans' shot to go unbeaten off

PETE PERKINS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

WACO, Texas -- It came down to one shot.
Senior guard Alan Barksdale's last-second three-point attempt fell inches short, and the Baylor Bears held on for a 54-51 victory over the UALR Trojans before a crowd of 2,553 at the Ferrell Center.
"It was dead on," Barksdale said. "I thought it was going in."
Junior forward Greg Davis hit one of two free throws with 5.7 seconds left to give Baylor (3-0) a three-point lead, and leave UALR (4-1) with hope.
After a timeout, UALR senior guard Laverne Smith was assigned to inbound the ball with four seconds left.
Smith had two options.
The first was to hit senior forward Stan Blackmon at the top of UALR's key, where Blackmon would look for Barksdale on the left or guard Mark Green on the right.
But Blackmon was covered by guard Terry Black, and Smith was fronted by Davis, the tallest player on the court at 6-9.
Smith went with his second option, a pass to freshman point guard Bryan Crislip near Baylor's key.
Crislip rushed across midcourt, and passed to Barksdale.
Barksdale was guarded 24 feet from the basket by sophomore guard Wendell Greenleaf.
With one second left, Barksdale's shot hit the front of the rim.
"We had two choices on defense," Baylor Coach Dave Bliss said. "One is you foul. But I've seen some bizarre things happen that way. And, to me, that's a little bit less than what you're trying to tell your team about digging in, and stopping them one time.
"The school of thought we went with is to try to guard their shooters. You just try to play good defense, don't foul, and hope they miss.
"I'm not sure our defensive play worked. They just missed the shot."
"They guarded the play well," Moser said. "You have to give a lot of credit to the Baylor defense in the second half."
UALR's defense played well, too. It held Baylor to a field-goal percentage of .333.
UALR led 33-25 at haftime but did not score in the second half until freshman forward Co Willis' layup gave it a 35-32 lead with 12:20 to play.
"We really came out at the start of the second half and played terrific defense," Bliss said. "And it wasn't like they didn't play great defense, because we didn't get the lead until when? We'd get close, and then balls would bounce away."
"What's frustrating is we didn't make plays offensively," Moser said. "We teach our team to put themselves in position to win with defense. And we guarded them, but we didn't execute offensively in key situations."
At least not in enough of them.
Baylor took its first lead when freshman guard Matt Sayman hit three free throws to put the Bears up 40-37 at 7:14.
Davis' turnaround, 6-foot jumper gave Baylor a 51-44 lead with 2:55 to play, but UALR scored on its next three possessions.
Barksdale hit a three-pointer. Green made a free throw, but he missed another he said would be difficult to forget.
With the clock at 1:05, Barksdale's third missed three-point attempt of the game was rebounded by Willis beneath the basket. Willis passed to Green.
Green hit an open, three-point shot to tie the score at 51 with 1:01 to play.
"I thought Willis made a big-time play," Bliss said.
"I knew the possession was critical," Willis said. "I just wanted to get the ball back out."
"Co got a big rebound for us," Green said. "I was telling myself that I needed to make a play. I just got open, and he saw me and gave it to me."
"I'm pleased with the way we came back," Moser said. "The crowd was going. We're down by seven, and we clawed our way back to tie it. I'm pleased, especially when you're playing a bunch of young guys. I hate to bring up last year, but you think you'll hear, 'Oh no. Here we go again.' But they didn't say that. They thought they could win right up until the horn went off."
UALR was 4-24 last season.
Senior guard Demarcus Minor hit a 12-footer from the baseline to give Baylor a 53-31 lead with 40 seconds left.
"Minor made a play," Moser said. "He made a couple of dribbles and hit that pull-up. He made a play."
UALR entered the game with a free-throw shooting percentage of .778, but missed 6 of 11 attempts against Baylor.
"We usually hit free throws well," Green said. "Today we faced a little adversity and just couldn't make them. You look back at the score, you realize you lost by three and you were 5 of 11 from the free-throw line, it makes you beat your head all against the wall. Man, if we just could've made a few of those, it's a different outcome."
Green led UALR with 17 points. Barksdale scored 14.
Greenleaf led Baylor with 19 points.
"This will help us later on in the year," Moser said. "It's just not helping us much now. I'm not handling this very well."
"We played well," Bliss said. "But I think they have to think they played well too. While there's no such thing as a moral victory, surely they derived that they can play well on the road."

This article was published on Sunday, December 3, 2000

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