UALR tops Louisiana-Lafayette 91-69, wins Sun Belt title

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) Markquis Nowell hit 4 of 6 3-pointers and scored 19 points with seven assists and five steals and Arkansas-Little Rock beat Louisiana-Lafayette 91-69 on Saturday to clinch its first outright Sun Belt Conference regular-season title since 2015-16.

Ruot Monyyong scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his 16th double-double and Ben Couplet Jr. added 15 points with five assists for the Trojans (21-9, 15-4), who shot 53% from 3-point range (10 of 19). Jovan Stulic scored 11 points and Nikola Maric added 10 with eight boards.

The Trojans, who were picked to finish 11th in the conference preseason poll, get a bye and are the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament that starts March 7 in New Orleans.

UALR scored 51 second-half points, a season best for the team.

Cedric Russell scored 17 points and Mylik Wilson added 18 for Louisiana-Lafayette (12-18, 7-12), which can clinch the No. 8 seed and home game with win over Coastal Carolina on Tuesday and an Arkansas State loss. P.J. Hardy added 10 points.

The Trojans improve to 2-0 against the Ragin' Cajuns this season. Arkansas-Little Rock defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 69-66 on Dec. 21. Arkansas-Little Rock finishes out the regular season against Georgia State on the road on Tuesday.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com

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