GAME NOTES: The opening round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at New Orleans Lakefront Arena concludes on Thursday night with the sixth-seeded South Alabama Jaguars taking on the No. 7 seed Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans.

Awaiting the winner in the quarterfinals on Friday night is No. 3 seed ULM. South Alabama swept both regular-season meetings, but only by a combined five points.

UALR is looking to rebound after ending its schedule with back-to-back losses. Prior to that, the Trojans had won five of six and appeared to be getting hot at the right time.

The Jaguars enter the opening-round tilt riding a two-game win streak, during which they averaged a healthy 88.5 points. In fact, the team's only victory of the year with less than 70 points was its 66-64 triumph over UALR in Mobile, Alabama on Jan. 19.

UALR has also picked up its offense of late, averaging 73.1 points over its last eight games while shooting 46.3 percent from the floor and 39.1 percent from distance. Josh Hagins (12.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg) and Roger Woods (11.7 ppg, 6.4 rpg) are the headliners for UALR. However, the Trojans lost top rebounder James White (11.9 ppg, 6.6 rpg) to a stress fracture in his left leg back in January and have continued to struggle defensively, particularly along the perimeter where they have allowed foes to shoot 38 percent.

South Alabama is led by Ken Williams and his 15.9 ppg. Taishaun Johnson (12.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg) and Dionte Ferguson (11.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg) have also made steady contributions. As a team, the Jaguars shoot 34 percent from 3-point range, third-best among SBC teams. They will be plenty hungry entering this contest after missing out on the SBC Tournament cut last season with a ninth-place finish. The Jags are second only to Louisiana among current league members with five tournament titles, and their 32 tourney victories are tops in the league.

Both of these teams can shoot from outside, so if one gets hot it could really open things up. Still, without White down low to clean up the trash, the Jags will be hard-pressed to pull off the season three-peat against UALR.