Back to Back: Victory for men’s basketball at last home game of the season

On Saturday, Southern’s men’s basketball team faced off against the Alcorn State Braves for the second time this season in their last home game. The Jags had a great game, killing it offensively and securing the win at 89-75. This is their second time defeating Alcorn this season, following a 76-59 victory earlier in the season at Alcorn. This would also be the fourth consecutive win for the Jags.
Between graduate student forward Harrison Henderson and junior guard Jayden Saddler, the Jags were scoring left and right. Before anyone knew, Jags already had a 6-point lead 5 minutes into the game. As the quarter continued, the Braves caught back up as Southern slowed down a little and started to make little mistakes like fouls and turnovers. At the same time, Alcorn was fouling so much, it gave Southern a free way of racking up free throw points, having made 11-15 and having a 73.33 % free-throw rate. These small mistakes from both teams caused Alcorn to have the chance to catch up and bring the game to a close to ending the first half with 39-43, with Southern still leading.
Just like the first half, the Jags’ energy was still very high. They were giving the Braves a run for their money. With the intense back and forth of the two teams, they gave the crowd a very pleasing game to watch. Coming with a strong force, junior guard Samkelo Cele, brought in the leading amount of points, scoring 17 points in the second half, followed by Saddler scoring 13. Although the Braves came close, they just could not prevail in the second half as the Jags went on to score another 46 points in total, ending the game with a 14-point lead. When asked about how he felt about the win, head coach Sean Woods stated that “The guys are starting to gel a little bit now that we got who we’ve got. Every game and every day we’re continuing to get better.”
The teamwork in this game was the most noticeable thing on and off the court. There wasn’t just one person doing everything, and they worked great offensively. When asked about what he felt was key to this victory, head coach Sean Woods simply stated that “We know who we got now.” He went on to elaborate by saying “We’ve been gone with injuries and COVID-19, now we know who we got and we’re playing with who we know we’re going to be playing with all the way down the stretch.”
To Coach Woods, the winning streak to him means the team is “Being consistent in doing what we gotta do.” Although this was the last home game of the conference season, the Jaguars still have 2 more away games as they face the Prairie View Panthers and Texas Southern Tigers before the SWAC Basketball Tournament.