Around the Sun Belt on Thursday

The old adage "it's hard to win on the road in college basketball" certainly was apropos Thursday night in the Sun Belt as all six games were won by the home teams.

Louisiana stayed unbeaten in league play with a 78-45 thrashing of Appalachian State.

Here's a quick look at what else happened around the league.

GEORGIA STATE 72, LITTLE ROCK 64--Panthers (10-6, 1-2) go their first league win as D'Marcus Simonds scored 19 points, eleven from the charity stripe. Little Rock (4-12, 1-2) was led by Cameron Reedus who had 19 points.

GEORGIA SOUTHERN 80, ARKANSAS STATE 49--Tookie Brown had 20 points and Montrae Glenn had a double double as the Eagles (11-5, 2-1) raced out to a 31-9 lead and never looked back. Arkansas State (6-10, 1-2) played without starting forward Tamas Bruce, who was suspended for violating team rules.

ULM 82, COASTAL CAROLINA 72--It was the Sam McDaniels show in Monroe as the Warhawks (7-7, 1-2) won their first conference game. McDaniels had a career high 29 points including six three pointers. Coastal (7-9, 1-2) fell behind 20-4 to start the game and trailed by as many as 20 points.

UTA 86 TROY 76--The preseason favorites got into the win column for the first time in league play as Erick Neal and Kevin Hervey combined for 40 points. The Mavs (10-6, 1-2) overcame an early deficit to take a 40-33 lead at halftime. The Trojans (7-9, 1-2) were led by Alex Hicks with 21 points.

TEXAS STATE 72, SOUTH ALABAMA 69--Texas State got a layup with 26 seconds left and South Alabama (8-7, 2-1) missed three chances to tie in the final seconds as the Bobcats (9-7, 2-1) got the home win. Immanuel King scored 19 for the Bobcats, while Josh Ajayi had 25 for the Jags.

SATURDAY'S GAMES

APPALACHIAN STATE AT ULM 2PM

LITTLE ROCK AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN 4PM

SOUTH ALABAMA AT UTA 4:15PM

TROY AT TEXAS STATE 4:30PM

COASTAL CAROLINA AT LOUISIANA 7PM

ARKANSAS STATE AT GEORGIA STATE 7:15PM

(all times Central)