The visiting team played like the home team Saturday at Magness Arena, and the home team didn’t play.
With that combination, visiting Arkansas-Little Rock surprised the Denver Pioneers 66-59 in a Sun Belt Conference game, putting a crimp in the home team’s storybook start of the 2011-12 season.
With 4,651 fans watching, the Trojans took command in the first half and stayed on course for the victory.
The usually hot-shooting Pioneers made only 35 percent from the field in the second half and 39 percent for the game. Not only was their shooting off, a crisp Arkansas-Little Rock defense forced 11 DU turnovers that led to 12 points at the other end.
If the Pioneers (11-3, 1-1) had won and boosted their record to 12-2, it would have been the school’s best-ever start.
Tying the best start didn’t soften the disappointment for coach Joe Scott.
“If you want to play well, you have to be aggressive,” Scott said. “Over the course of the game, our not playing that way caught up to us. When you play in the conference you need some leadership, and we didn’t have it tonight. I have to do a better job Thursday to Saturday getting our team ready to play. We have to figure out a way to get this one back with a win on the road.”
The Pioneers seemed on track, taking an 18-9 lead 10 minutes into the game.
But with strong play from guards D’Andre Williams and Ben Dillard and forward Will Neighbour, Arkansas-Little Rock (5-10, 2-0) forged a 21-3 run to take a 30-21 lead late in the first half.
When the Pioneers didn’t score a point in the first 5:28 of the second half, the Trojans upped the lead to 45-27 before Royce O’Neale hit a 3-pointer to halt the skid.
A 10-4 run cut the lead to 57-51 with 4:08 to go, but that was as close as DU would get.
DU’s Brian Stafford, who finished with nine points, credited Arkansas-Little Rock’s defense.
“They didn’t give us anything easy,” Stafford said. “We didn’t get a lot of open looks. We gave up some transition baskets in the first half. We wanted to defend our home court and came up short.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
