Greyhounds impress in a pair of road wins

ASU Mid-South beats North Arkansas, Northwest Mississippi From ASU Mid-South

www.asumidsouthsports. com

It’s always tough to win on the road, but ASU Mid-South pulled off the feat not once, but twice last week in impressive fashion.

Down by four points at the half, the Greyhounds exploded for 65 second-half points to take a 102-85 victory over North Arkansas College on Jan. 25 in Harrison.

ASU Mid-South trailed 41-37 at the half thanks to 13 turnovers and the Pioneers shooting 48.4% from the field.

But the Greyhounds scored on consecutive possessions to start the second half to tie it at 41-41, then broke open a 46-46 tie by going on a 17-6 run, capped by an Ike Moore traditional three-point play, to lead 63-52 with 12:52 left to play. The Greyhounds would never trail again, eventually stretching the lead to 20, 92-72, at the 4:31 mark, and coasting the rest of the way.

The Greyhounds shot 50.0% from the field and 43.5% from the three-point line while hitting 18-of-22 free throws (81.8%). They also controlled the boards, 44-31, limited NorthArk to 31.8% behind the arc, and while finishing with 17 turnovers, only 4 came in the decisive second half.

Jalen Lynn led all scorers with 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting while Ike Moore hit for 21 points while going 8-0f-14 from the field.

Zach Byrd collected his sixth double-double of the season with 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Jarius Sharp scored 12 points, including a monster dunk in the second half, to go with 6 boards.

Christian White, facing double-teams all night, dished out a team-high 7 assists while holding the Pioneers leading scorer and rebounder to 4 points and 4 rebounds below his average.

ASU Mid-South then traveled to Northwest Mississippi on Monday for a key conference game.

Down by 7 with 5:26 to go, the Greyhounds used a blistering 15-3 run for a 77-72 victory over Northwest Mississippi at Howard Coliseum in Senatobia.

The comeback began with a Jalen Lynn three-pointer at the 5:13 mark, but the Rangers scored in the paint on the next possession to push the lead back to 6. But the Greyhound defense held tough as Zach Byrd took a charge, and Lynn hit another 3-pointer before Ike Moore came from the weakside for a monstrous block out of bounds with just 2 seconds left on the shot clock, and the Rangers couldn’t get a shot off, giving the ball back to ASU Mid-South.

On the following possession, Moore hit a jumper from the elbow to cut the lead to 71-70 with 2:18 left to go.

Northwest then missed a three-pointer on the ensuing possession, and Garret Finley battled for the rebound. Moore then knocked down his seventh three-pointer of the game to give ASU Mid-South a 73-71 lead with 1:32 remaining. On the very next possession, Moore did it on the other end by taking a hard charge in the paint to give the Greyhounds the ball with 1:16 remaining.

With the Greyhound defense giving up only a single free throw the rest of the way, Lynn took care of the rest by going 4-for-4 from the free throw line to seal the tough road win.

The Greyhounds led 41-32 at the half thanks to only 4 first-half turnovers, and led by 12 just three-minutes into the second half, but the Rangers stormed back with a 13-2 run that tied the score at 54-54 with 11 minutes to go while forcing 13 Greyhound turnovers in the second half. Then three Northwest three-pointers helped the home team gain a 7-point lead with 5:26 to go, setting up the Greyhound comeback.

Moore ended up with 29 points on 9-of-13 shooting (7-of-10 from the arc) to go with a team-high 7 rebounds, and Jalen Lynn finished with 20 points while going 4-of-8 from the three-point line.

Kevin Fulton scored 9 points on 4-of-6 shooting, but it was Zach Byrd who served as the unsung hero scoring 9 points, dishing out a game-high 8 assists and pulling down a teamhigh 7 rebounds with Moore.

The Greyhounds (16-5) shot an outstanding 14for-28 from the threepoint line and shot a solid 46.3% from the field while limiting the Rangers to 41.9% shooting and 28.6% behind the arc. Northwest took the rebounding advantage, 37-34, and shot 14-for-21 free throws to the Greyhounds’ 13for-18.

Next up is a return to The Dog House for the first game of a homestand tonight against Crowley’s Ridge College that will see the Greyhounds play seven of their final eight regular season games at home.