Arkansas State men’s basketball falls one game short
The Red Wolves fell in the Sun Belt Championship Game to Troy.
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Earlier in the day on Monday, the Arkansas State women won the Sun Belt Championship, punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
After the women’s game, it was the men’s turn to try and make a Sun Belt sweep for the Red Wolves.
Arkansas State took on Troy in the conference title game, after splitting a pair of regular-season matchups with the Trojans. The Red Wolf offense was cold in the early going, allowing Troy to build a nine-point lead halfway through the first half.
But the Red Wolf men, much like their female counterparts earlier in the day, fought all the way back and took a 43-41 lead into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, the back and forth continued.
The Red Wolves looked to pull away, but Derrian Ford put Arkansas State up by 8 with ten minutes left.
From there, they would go nearly five minutes without scoring, all while Troy kept chipping away and eventually the Trojans prevailed, 94-81.
It’s the second straight year the Arkansas State men fell in the Sun Belt championship game.
The last time the Red Wolves made the NCAA Tournament was 1999, a streak that will continue.
Last year, the team played in the College Basketball Invitational Tournament, and the possibility of postseason basketball is still very much alive.