Lions outlast Jaguars in overtime

HAMMOND, La. — The Southeastern Louisiana Lions have lots of experience. They also have experienced guards in seniors Brandon Fortenberry and Deshawn Patterson.
On Monday, Patterson was the one who took over the game while Fortenberry was sidelined with a foot injury. He came away with two of his five steals in overtime. With six seconds left, Patterson stole a pass and quickly dashed towards the basket before being fouled.
He made one free throw, which would seal a 65-61 win for the Lions and extend its win streak over SU to seven games.
“I thought they was gone come out and try to play a zone against us,” said first-year coach Roman Banks, who served as an assistant coach for the Lions from 2003-11. “We wanted Derick (Beltran) to touch it and we wanted Quinton (Doggett) to touch it. I just got to get them to understand what we want to do.”
The opportunity for the win was made available for Southern late in the second half. With 30 seconds left, SU led 58-57. Daron Populist of Southeastern made two free throws to give the Lions a one-point lead.
Banks said he called a timeout because he thought Southeastern was going to be a zone defense. Despite the fact SU trailed by as many as 15 in the second half, Southern shot 40 percent from the floor, led by junior guard Derick Beltran, who tied a season-high with 20 points.
“We drew up a man play and a zone play,” Banks said. “The thing is we’ve being playing good programs. If your able to go out on the road and play. Hopefully, when we go home we have some confidence and it’ll teach us how to attack and have us better to take over a game and win it.”
The Jaguars went cold in overtime after two made free throws by junior guard Jameel Grace with 3:45 remaining, putting SU up 61-59. They missed their next three shots including a desperate attempt from the center of the floor as time expired.
“We were just glad to get there because we had led the whole contest,” said Lions head coach Jim, whose team is 2-1 in overtime games this season. “I got a sense that they were trying to make that last push to try and catch us and pass us at the end.”
The Lions outrebounded Southern 48-33 and improved to 5-0 at home.
Southeastern took a 19-8 lead when Patterson made the first of two free throws with 10:04 remaining in the first half. Southern tied the game at 23-23 when Madut Bol hit a lay-up at the 3:22 mark. The Lions ended the first half with a 10-4 run as Onochie Ochie capped the run with a jumper and three-point play with 0.5 seconds left for a 33-27 lead at halftime.
“It’s a bottom line business and winning is always good,” Yarbrough said. “I would have liked to have done it against just anybody else except our friend Roman Banks. His team is fighting, they’re building and they’re getting better.”