A barrage of 18 3-pointers helped lift the Arkansas State men’s basketball team to its second consecutive win on Saturday, as the Red Wolves set a school record for treys made in a Sun Belt Conference game in a 90-75 win over Old Dominion inside First National Bank Arena.
A-State (6-9, 2-1 SBC) hit on 18-of-39 from deep for a 46.2-percent clip en route to scoring 90-plus for the third straight game. It marked the first time since the start of the 2001-02 season in which an A-State team scored 90 or more in three consecutive contests and the first time ever in conference action.
The Red Wolves out-rebounded the Monarchs (4-11, 0-3) 42-37 and handed out 19 assists on 31 made baskets, marking the ninth game with 15 or more dimes. Caleb Fields paved the way on the offensive end with 10 assists to go along with 13 points, giving him his third career double-double – his second in points and assists.
Dyondre Dominguez also registered a double-double, his fifth of the year, scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Avery Felts knocked down five treys for the second straight game, resulting in 15 points while Derrian Ford added 13.
As a team, A-State shot 47.0 percent (31-66) from the field while converting 10-of-12 (83.3 percent) at the foul line.
ODU, which shot 42.3 percent (30-71) as a team, had two players score 20-plus in Vasean Alette (28 points) and Chaunce Jenkins (27 points), but had no other players score more than four points.
A-State scored the game’s first five points and held ODU to 1-of-5 from the field to start. The Red Wolves used a potent 3-point frenzy to open up a lead as big as 21 after Julian Lual hit from downtown – one of his three perimeter makes. In the first 20 minutes, A-State knocked down 10-of-21 from deep.
After Dominguez buried a trey with 4:07 to go, the visitors surged back to within six with a 13-0 run before Fields ended the half with a buzzer-beating triple to give A-State a 48-39 lead at the break.
Despite an early push to open the second half by the Monarchs, who dwindled the margin down to two, the Red Wolves did not trail in the final 20 minutes. Felts hit back-to-back treys to spark an 8-0 run and then threes by Ford and Dominguez were later part of a 9-0 stretch that made it a 16-point affair with less than 6 minutes remaining.
Old Dominion pulled back to within nine on a score by Leroy Odiahi, but A-State closed the contest on an 11-5 run to seal the 15-point victory.
NEXT UP
Arkansas State continues its four-game home stand at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against Texas State inside First National Bank Arena.
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