LITTLE ROCK, ARK. - The Lindenwood Men's Basketball team (15-10, 9-5 OVC) improved to 8-2 following a loss this season with a gutsy 79-74 win on the road over Little Rock on Thursday night. Senior Guard Anias Futrell led the Lions once again offensively scoring a game-high 24 points and knocking down six three pointers to go along with six rebounds and three assists. 

After Little Rock jumped out to a 10-4 lead less than five minutes into the contest, Lindenwood responded with an 11-0 run to grab a 15-10 lead behind Futrell scoring five points to highlight the run and Robert Lewis chipping in four points. The Trojans quickly responded with a 5-0 run to tie the game at 15 with 10 minutes left in the first half and led to the final 30 minutes being close throughout. With 8:05 to go in the opening half, Milos Nenadic gave Lindenwood the lead on a layup and Dontrez Williams followed the Nenadic layup with a left wing three pointer as the Lions clung to a 24-22 lead. Both teams went scoreless over the next several minutes with the score tied at 24 until Mekhi Cooper knocked down his first three pointer of the game to put the Lions in front 27-24 with just under five minutes to go until halftime. Little Rock briefly took the lead with 2:46 to go, but Jadis Jones scored on a layup and Nenadic went 2-2 from the free throw line as Lindenwood grabbed a 31-30 lead at the break. Nenadic led the Lions with 10 first half points while Williams had seven and Futrell had five. 

In the second half, the largest lead for either side was six as both teams traded punches back and forth all half long. After Little Rock took a four point lead at 42-38 with 16:06 remaining, Anias Futrell started to heat up for the rest of the contest as he buried three straight three pointers to even up the score at 47-47 with 12:40 to play. Futrell would connect on his fourth three pointer of the half with 8:55 to go to give Lindenwood a 56-52 lead, but the Trojans once again responded with a run of their own by using a 6-2 run over the next 1:30 of game time to even the score at 58. Mekhi Cooper connected on his only three pointer of the second half 10 seconds after ULR had tied the game to put Lindenwood up for good for the remainder of the contest. Milos Nenadic gave the Lions a five point lead a few minutes later after scoring on a reverse layup inside the paint with 5:48 left, and scored again less than a minute later on a tip-in layup to put the pressure on Little Rock over the final five minutes of the game. The Trojans cut the deficit down to one by a score of 69-68 with less than three minutes to play, but Futrell ended all hope for Little Rock by connecting on his fifth straight three pointer of the half from the logo to put Lindenwood back up by four with just over two minutes to play. Nenadic scored the next basket a minute later on another tip in to give the Lions their largest lead of the half at 74-68 and LU made free throws down the stretch to pick up their fifth OVC road win of the season by a final score of 79-74. 

Rebounding was a big factor tonight for Lindenwood as they outrebounded Little Rock 41-37 and gathered 16 offensive rebounds in the win over the Trojans that led to 15 second chance points. The Lions also shot 6-7 from the three point line in the second half while holding Little Rock to 1-6 from beyond the arc over the last 20 minutes of action.

With the victory tonight, Lindenwood is now tied for first in the OVC in road wins during conference play with five and sits in fourth place overall in the OVC standings with six games to play. LU returns to action next Thursday night as they will host the number one team in the OVC in UT Martin. Tip-off from Hyland Arena is set for 7:30 p.m. CT