By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – It was a tale of two halves for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team Thursday evening, as the Golden Eagles dropped a momentum-driven affair at Little Rock by a final score of 79-74.
The Golden Eagles (13-13, 8-7) came out firing on the night, lighting up the Jack Stephens Center to the tune of a 65.4 field-goal percentage and a 7-for-12 display from downtown in the opening half. The offense came from great unselfishness by the Cookeville crew, dialing up 13 assists on 17 makes over the first 20 minutes of action.
An impressive eight different members of the purple and gold scored by the six-minute mark of the opening stanza, leading to the strong offensive performance. Tech's lone Achille's heel in the first period came from ball control, with the league's stingiest defense forcing nine turnovers by the visitors to provide more scoring opportunities.
The Trojans (17-10, 11-5) showed great offensive improvement from their loss to Southeast Missouri on Tuesday, one that saw the home squad held to just 45 points. Little Rock shot 48.5 percent from the floor with four makes on eight attempts from distance to stay within arm's reach of the Golden Eagles heading into the locker room.
Early on in the second half, the purple and gold looked like it was going to enjoy one of its best offensive performances of the season, continuing its strong shooting while using a 7-0 run to extend the lead to 10 with 13:30 to play. Out of nowhere, almost like a blanket smothering flames, the fire in the Tech offense just went out.
Little Rock's defense hit a new level and started to feed its own offense, flipping the contest completely on its head with a 20-2 run over the next seven minutes. The Trojans knocked down seven consecutive shots from the floor while slashing the Tech shooting percentage for the half down to 36.8 percent.
Those struggles just continued to grow as the game wore on, with the Golden Eagles missing eight straight field goals over a 6:30 span. Senior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. finally snapped the streak with 3:17 on the clock, but it would be the final make from the floor for Tech until a pair of triples found the bottom of the net in the closing 10 seconds.
The Trojans forced scoring droughts of 4:04, 3:58, and 2:33 over the game's closing 13 minutes, failing to extend its lead to double digits solely because of their own cold stretch. Little Rock recovered with plenty of time and sunk enough free throws to hold off Tech's late charge with the two makes from beyond the arc.
After the brilliant first half, the Golden Eagles were held to just 34.5 percent efficiency in the second half, including a 4-for-12 mark from downtown.
Junior guard Jaylon Johnson led Tech with 21 points and seven assists, finishing 3-for-6 from deep and 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. Rodney Johnson Jr. just missed a double-double with 11 points, nine rebounds, and four assists.
Sophomore forward JaJuan Nicholls also tallied 11 points while shooting 5-for-7 from the field. Junior center David Craig provided a huge presence off the bench, hauling in a game-high 11 rebounds while chipping in seven points. Local Rickman native Matthew Sells knocked down three of his four attempts from 3-point range, finishing the night with nine points.
Tech will make a visit to Cape Girardeau, Mo. for its final road contest of the regular season on Saturday, squaring off with Southeast Missouri in a critical, 3:45 p.m. CT bout in the Show Me Center.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
