March 1, 2002

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS - Nick Rivers canned six 3-pointers for a game-high 20 points to lead No. 4 East seed Arkansas State to a 58-53 win over No. 5 seed Denver in first-round play Friday afternoon at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in New Orleans. With the win, the Indians (15-15) advance to a Saturday quarterfinal matchup with West Division co-champion Louisiana-Lafayette, while the Pioneers' first season of the Terry Carroll era ends at 8-20.

Senior forward Wahhab Carter (El Reno, Okla. / El Reno HS) led the Pioneers with 19 points, while junior guard Leslie Richardson II (Aurora, Colo. / Overland HS / Lamar CC) added 13 points and freshman guard Erik Benzel (Spokane, Wash. / Ferris HS) had 10. Senior forward Sherman Rochell (Oklahoma City, Okla. / Northern Oklahoma College) added seven points and a game-high nine rebounds.

"I thought our guys came out with a great deal of intensity. They followed our defensive game plan as well as possible," said head coach Terry Carroll. "In the second half, Arkansas State made some adjustments. We were going to make them shoot from the outside. With their size differential, I thought our guys did a great job out-rebounding them. But credit Arkansas State for hitting their shots.

"I'm very happy with the direction this program is going. I just wish these two guys next to me [Carter and Rochell] were here to stick around for another year," Carroll added. "I'm disappointed, but not discouraged. This was a good learning experience for these guys."

A frenetic start made for exciting play up and down the floor, yet yielded few points. Denver took a 5-2 lead on a free throw from Carter with 14 minutes, 12 seconds to play in the first half. Then Richardson banked a 12-foot jumper, and Rochell hit a pair of free throws to push the Pioneer lead to 9-2 with 11:46 left. Denver made five of its first six free throws, while Arkansas State missed its first two from the line.

Denver held ASU to 2-of-15 shooting through the first 12 minutes of the first half, and the Pioneers broke the Indian press to get Carter on open jumper to take a 15-6 lead with 7:18 left. Arkansas State then went on a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer from Nick Rivers, and a pair of short jumpers from Jason Jennings. Yet the Pioneers went on their own 7-0 run when Benzel hit his first 3-pointer of the morning, and then fed Carter a long pass on the fastbreak that the senior canned to cause an ASU timeout with 2:09 left. The break didn't prove immediately effective for the Indians, as Richardson made a steal and a coast-to-coast layup on the ensuing possession to put the Pioneers back up 22-13, and Benzel canned back-to-back 19-footers to give Denver a 26-18 lead heading into the break.

The Pioneers held ASU to just 7-of-25 shooting (28 percent) in the first half - the second-lowest mark of the season for a Denver opponent - and also held a 21-15 advantage on the glass.

Richardson canned the first shot of the second half, yet after a Carter jumper, ASU went on an 11-0 run capped by a Tony Brown 3-pointer to take a 31-30 lead - its first since the opening bucket - with 15:24 left. Rochell came back on the next possession and hit a 3-point play to regain the lead. Junior guard B.J. Pratt (San Antonio, Texas / Converse Judson HS) then caused another ASU timeout after converting a 4-on-2 fastbreak off a Benzel steal.

Nick Rivers then canned three 3-pointers over the next 5 minutes to stake Arkansas State to a 48-43 lead with 5:20 left. Odie Williams and Rivers then hit back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 54-47 lead. Richardson came back to hit a 3-pointer with 1:47 left to pull the Pioneers within four, yet Williams hit a pair of free throws to put the game away.