One Man After Another

When it comes to losing big men, Southern takes the cake.
After regaining center, Frank Snow from a four-game absence hand injury, forward Jared Sam was lost due to an ankle injury on Saturday’s showdown against Alabama A&M.
After a 10-point loss to Jackson State early in the month, Southern in lue of “big man” Snow’s absence captured three consecutive wins. On Valentine’s Day captured a 74-56 victory while visiting Arkansas-Pine Bluff and two days later visited Mississippi Valley with a 68-56 win. Lastly back at home at F.G. Clark Activity Center; they captured a 72-63 win against a heavy blocking team of Alabama A&M.
Southern withstood Sam’s absence on the court to volley a tricky showdown between the two.
Southern (14-14, 11-3) trailed first-place Alabama State and Texas Southern by one game entering play on Saturday and Alabama A&M fell to 6-7 in conference play and 7-16 overall.
“One comes back from injury and another one goes,” said Southern coach Roman Banks, “with the style of basketball we play, we need all of our parts to be pretty good.”
The post game was further depleted when Keith Davis fouled out with 5:40 remaining. Snow coming from the bench played 16 minutes in his first action in 3 weeks and finished with seven points, four rebounds, one block, and one steal.
“I was a little rusty but the hand felt good,” said Snow, “I didn’t expect to play much at all, but I’m glad I was able to help.”
While Banks stitched the frontcourt together, Trelun Banks, Tre’ Lynch, Adrian Rogers and Christopher Hyder were taking turns providing an offense spark from the backcourt.
“All the guards scored in a timely manner,” Banks said, “They did a good job of stopping our dry spells.”
Lynch had the team high of 15 points after a lightning display of jump shots throughout the game. Banks and Roger scored 13 apiece and Hyder had seven points, six assists, five rebounds and a steal in 38 minutes.
Once the three point play by Raikya Battle put the Bulldogs ahead before Lynch free throw with 32 seconds left in the first half then Southern led by 35-34 in halftime but quickly extended to double digits in the second half.
Alabama A&M went five and a half minutes without a field goal to restitute and Southern gradually extended the lead after a first half freeze. Rogers made a jump shot from the foul line and Snow scored on a put back while Hopkins made a tip-in for a 69-50 lead with two and a half minutes left into the game.
“We got some stops when we needed them,” said Hyder, “The big thing was we didn’t given them second chances. Sometimes we get the initial stop but we don’t get the rebound, we were strong in rebounding tonight.”
Despite another man falling, Southern outbounded Alabama A&M 40-35 as 9 players had at least one.
“The team effort was great,” Rodgers said.
Ladarius Tabb led Alabama A&M with 17 points, West had 12, and Raikaya Battle had 11. Tabb and West each scored 10 in the second half.
Sam returned on crutches to finish watching his teammates win and with his leg propped up, there was nothing more satisfying than a victory.