The Battle for the West

Oh, was it a great day to be a jaguar. At the F. G. Clark Activity Center, “The Mini Dome”, was scene of where the Women and Men basketball team played for 1st place in the SWAC West Division in a show stopping double header, “The Battle of the West”.
Our lady jags had a slow start to the first quarter after failing to stop the lady braves fast paced offense. They trailed by 6 points most of the quarter until after a late push going into the second quarter only trailing by 2. The 2nd quarter started the same way with the lady jags seemingly out of position for the first half. The lady braves caught wind of this by continuously drawing fouls which allowed them 83.3% from the free throw line compared to the lady jags 25%. Then with 3 minutes until halftime the lady jags finally found their groove which resulted in them taking their first lead of the game with 23-21. A successful push during the last minute and a half of the quarter allowed the lady braves 33, lady jags 27 going into half time. It was clear by now that this game was going to come down to free throws. The lady jags needed to regroup and attack this problem quickly for a chance to win. And regrouping is what they did indeed in the 3rd quarter. This looked like a completely different team with apparent leadership taken by #25 senior guard Genovea Johnson. She ended the game with a personal FT percentage of 86.67. The fourth quarter’s tone was set by #20 senior guard Amani Mcwain with an amazing save. Although the lady braves put up a fight, the lady jags remain victorious ending the game 65-62 to become #2 in the SWAC West with #1 Jackson State ahead of them.
Now to the men. Starting off our jags managed 4 turnovers in the first 4 minutes of the game and this set the tone for the rest of the night with Alcorn showing impeccable defense. #23 Gr. Bryson Etienne scored the first 3-pointer of the night for the jags. It was clear that the braves had no specific scorer however the team chemistry was tremendous which kept them a force to be reckoned with. The jags then went on a 17-5 run with 11:05 left in the first half with impressive ball handling by #3 Sr. guard P.J. Byrd. It was obvious the men had built a trusting relationship with #22 graduate guard Brion Whitley in his ability to be consistent behold the 3-point line by scoring 6 points in less than 10 seconds with 9:27 left in the first half. Just for his team to allow 2 turnovers in the next 37 seconds. However, this didn’t seem to stop the momentum with jags still holding off the Braves 36-30 at halftime. The Braves showed up aggressive in the 2nd half continuously driving to the goal forcing a time out from Southern. #13 Jr. post Jeremiah Kendall from the Braves showed impressive court awareness being consistent from the paint. Southern then returned the favor with #3 senior guard, P.J. Byrd, currently has 6 assists continuing to be a playmaking force which accounted for the 11-point lead the Jags had over the Braves. The Braves defense continued to be effective forcing 4 more turnovers back-to-back. With #22 Brion Whitley being 63.67% from the 3-point line, with the current score 80-68.
Tensions were high the entire game resulting in multiple technical fouls on both teams; with the game coming to an abrupt ending when both teams and coaches had to be stopped from a pushing match with the braves being escorted off the court by police personnel. The last 3 minutes of the clock were ran down with the Southern Jaguars taking the #1 spot in the western SWAC division.