March Madness Southern Jaguars 2016 SWAC Champions!

The Jaguars have been shunned from the NCAA tournament for two years straight for unusable data that was sent to the NCAA so no matter the circumstance, if Southern would’ve won the Southwestern Athletic Championship trophy, they would’ve had to forfeit their NCAA tournament bid. With 15 seconds left, the crowd being silent and only the heartbeats of the court could be heard until senior guard, Adrian Rodgers, went for the buzzer beater.
The Jaguars have done it; they are now your 2016 SWAC Champions after their 54-53 victory against Jackson State University on Saturday, March 12.
The men’s basketball team hard work all season has finally paid off when the team held up the championship trophy at the end of the game and finally caught the feeling of being champions once again.
The basketball team started their tournament journey against Alabama State. The Jags breezed through the first round with a final score of 83-63. Both Jared Sam and Adrian Rodgers stepped up and led the team with the most points scored; Jared Sam went “postal” scored 22 points and Adrian Rodgers accompanied him and scored 13 points.
Once the Jags were done with the first round they set their sights to Texas Southern. The inner conference rival didn’t put up much of a fight for the first few minutes in the first half. Southern jumped out to a quick 13-2 lead. The lead kept growing and growing and it finished at the end of the half with a score of 44-32.
The Jags continued to build on their hard earned lead in the second half and did not let up. The game became close when Texas Southern found them only down by one in the middle of the second half. The jags proved to be too much for the tigers and won the game with a score of 81-73.
After the second game, they were ready for Jackson State in the finals. The Jags got off to a quick start with a 7-0 and were not slowing down. The Jags controlled the first half and held the lead; then went into the half with the lead of 22-24. The second half was nothing less than action packed. Southern started off the second half continuing the lead they worked hard to build.
A good run by Jackson State brought them to tie and that’s when the action began. The lead changed hands multiple times throughout the second half. One team would take the lead, and then give it right back to the other team. With two minutes remaining in the game the jags found themselves down by three. Two made free throw shots by Christopher Hyder brought the Jags down by one point with a few seconds left on the clock.
The rest is history as Southern now has cast the winner’s ballot into the NCAA Tournament as the 16th seed against Holy Cross at 5:40pm on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.
The winner of this bout will go on to face the No. 1 seed (Oregon) at 6:27pm in Spokane Washington.
The Jaguars will have their glide to glory as they are back in March Madness for the first time in four years.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who or where,” said head coach Roman Banks, “We are just glad to see our names on the screen.”
Let the Madness Begin.