Josh Halley/The Southern Digest
Senior Jaguars' forward Deon Saunders spins around Tigers' forward Jamar Lewis to score two of his 23 points in Thursday's Jaguars' 69-65 victory over Grambling State. - Photo by Josh Halley // DIGEST
Box Score
BIRMINGHAM,Ala. – The SouthernJaguars, the No. 6 seed defeated their archrival Grambling State, the No. 3seed in overtime 69-65 to advance to the semifinals of the 2005 SouthwesternAthletic Conference Tournament.
Southernand Grambling State split the two regular season games with each winning athome. The Jaguars coming off atwo-game losing streak collected its first tournament win under second yearhead coach Michael Grant.
“It feelsgood and I think it feels good for this team also because this team hasn’t hadany success as far as winning at the tournament level and now that they haveone behind them, we can have the opportunity to move forward and feel morerelax going into the next ball game,” said Grant.
Southern’slast SWAC tournament victory came against Grambling on March 6, 2001.
“We playedprobably the worst we have played in the last 10 ball games. We didn’t shoot the ball well, weweren’t ready mentally and we dug ourselves in a hole, ” said Grambling headcoach Larry Wright. “A game ofthis nature, when you are playing your rival, you don’t need to dig a hole.”
After a59-59 tie, overtime began with Southern’s Trayvean Scott missing a three thatwas rebounded by Grambling’s Brion Rush. Rush was fouled by Southern’s Jerimie Collier then made two free throwsand a dunk giving Grambling the lead 63-59 with 3:53 in overtime to play.
The scorewas tied again at 63-63 with only, 2:53 remaining, after a Chris Alexanderdrive. Then Southern took the lead on a Scott jumper 65-63. Grambling tied the game on free throwsby Rush at 65-65. Southern’s Scott nailed a jumper giving the Jaguars a 67-65lead. A missed three byGrambling’s Rush and a foul by Jamar Lewis which lead to two Alexander clutchfree throws gave Southern its win at 69-65.
“Our guysmade some big plays and Trayvean made a big shot at the end going in with theoffensive rebound,” said Grant. ”He just did a nice job offensively as far as getting some key stops.”
Thegraduate student Scott scored all of his four points in overtime after going0-5 in regulation. He also collected seven rebound and three steals. DeonSaunders led Southern in scoring with 23 points and nine rebounds. PeterCipriano collected 11 rebounds and three blocks for the Jaguars.
“I didn’treally have a good first half. Ihaven’t really had one the past three or four games actually and we struggled,”said Scott. “Something wasin me that just told me to let the clock run, take the last shot and fortunateI did.”
The Jaguarsled in the first half after breaking from a tie with free throws by Saunderswith 11-9. The biggest lead in thehalf was by seven points after a Saunders free throw with 1:24 remaining and making the half time score25-18.
Grambling’sdefense caused the Jaguars to turnover the ball 15 times and key players tofall into foul trouble in the second half.
As theGrambling momentum increased the Jaguars began to become careless by sendingthe Tigers to the line with one minute left and free throws by Grambling’s Rushand Maurice Searight tied the score at 59-59. Southern had one last chance to make two for the win in thefinal seconds. Collier shot hit the side of the goal and the clock expiredsending the game into overtime.
Grambling’sstarting guard and All-SWAC first team selection, Rush was scoreless in thefirst half. He finished with 16 points. Jamar Lewis had 15 points.
“We foughthard and we didn’t play particular well when we needed to and we didn’t playsmart when we needed to, but all and all it’s still a basketball game and itslesson in life, ” said Grambling’s Wright.
Alexanderscored 15 points but committed nine turnovers said “…we talked about going outwith a bang.”
“I thoughtit as a great effort, I thought our guys really competed today, this was probablyone of our most focus games that we had,” said Grant.
After aphysical rivalry game, Southern goes on to play #2 AlabamaState, who defeated Prairie View 64-56, in the semi-finals Friday, March 11 at 5p.m. on ESPNU, tape delayed.
“This isgreat for the program and this is a great win,” said Grant.