Neighbour, UALR defeat Louisiana-Lafayette 80-69

Jan 30, 2014, 10:32 pm

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Will Neighbour had 24 points on 7-of-9 shooting and hauled in 12 rebounds to help push Arkansas-Little Rock past Louisiana-Lafayette 80-69 Thursday night.

The Trojans (11-10, 6-3 Sun Belt Conference) shot 47.2 percent from the field, with Josh Haggins scoring 12 points and Ben Dillard adding 11. Neighbour was 9 of 11 from the foul line.

Louisiana-Lafayette (12-9, 3-5) was held to 37.7 percent shooting, including a 4-of-20 performance from beyond the arc. Elfrid Payton led the Ragin' Cajuns with 20 points and J.J. Davenport had 14 with 11 boards.

The Ragin' Cajuns jumped out to an early 14-3 lead on the strength of three Xavian Rimmer 3-pointers, but UALR surged back as a Mareik Isom 3-pointer knotted the score at 39 at halftime.

Holding a 64-63 lead with 6:59 remaining, Neighbour made a layup and Kemy Osse converted a three-point play, igniting a 16-6 run to close the game.