Trojans heading into hostile environment
Posted on Saturday, January 3, 2009
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/CHRIS DEAN UALR Coach Steve Shields and the Trojans expect a hostile crowd today when they take on Sun Belt Eastern Division leader Western Kentucky in Bowling Green, Ky.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - The atmosphere won't be anything new. How UALR handles it will be key.
UALR takes to the road for the first time in Sun Belt Conference play at 7 tonight, taking on Western Kentucky at E.A. Diddle Arena in a matchup of early division leaders. How UALR handles the conference's best game atmosphere will be crucial.
UALR (9-4, 2-0 Sun Belt Conference) leads the West Division as the only division team without a loss. Western Kentucky (8-4, 2-0) is tied with Middle Tennessee for the East Division lead. The game will be televised by Fox College Sports Atlantic, which is available on Comcast cable systems and DirecTV satellite systems.
"We certainly have to show a great amount of poise here, not getting out of our game when the crowd gets involved," UALR Coach Steve Shields said. "We've got to show toughness to execute with good, hard cuts, and our transition defense has to be really sound."
UALR is 3-2 on the road but really only faced hostile atmospheres in two of those games. UALR lost 59-37 at Missouri State on Dec. 3 before a crowd of 6,366, and UALR lost 58-51 at Memphis on Dec. 17 before a crowd of 17,220.
"We hope playing a game like we did at Memphis will prepare us for playing here," Shields said. "We talked about Missouri State and Memphis yesterday before practice. That's something that we have to have learned from. Hopefully, we have."
Even with most of the students still away on Christmas break, tonight's crowd figures to be closer to Missouri State in numbers but closer to Memphis in enthusiasm with its red towel-waving fans. Western Kentucky is averaging 4,285 through five home games this season.
Eight players on UALR's roster saw action in last year's game in Bowling Green - seniors Brandon Patterson, Shane Edwards, John Fowler and LaMarvon Jackson, juniors Mike Smith and Steven Moore and sophomore's Matt Mouzy and Derrick Bails.
"They say this is one of the best college atmospheres in the Sun Belt, and I really believe that," said Fowler, who has averaged 22.5 points in his past two games. "You have to have poise and toughness to handle the crowd and do what we're coming here to do."
UALR got off to a good start last year at Diddle Arena before falling apart in the second half. After leading 27-25 at halftime, UALR lost 71-47. The Trojans were outscored 46-20 in the second half after shooting 20.8 percent.
"We got away from what we were planning on doing and weren't able to recover from it," Fowler said.
UALR didn't have that at Missouri State. The Trojans committed 21 turnovers and shot 23 percent in the loss. At Memphis, UALR got off to a better start to the game, struggled early in the second half, then put together a strong finish before losing by eight points.
"We didn't show great poise at Missouri State," Shields said. "I felt like we showed pretty good poise at Memphis. We're going to have to have good poise here."
UALR at W. Kentucky
WHEN 7 Central tonight WHERE Bowling Green, Ky. RECORDS UALR 9-4, 2-0 Sun Belt; Western Kentucky 8-4, 2-0 TV Fox College Sports Atlantic
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