BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Chris Alexander jumped in the air, Brandon Wardlow and Ralph Hishaw jumped upon the scorer’s table expressing their excitement for winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship for Southern in18 years. The Jaguars had no problem handing the Golden Lions a lost in their 57-44 win.
“It’s good to be champions,” said head coach Rob Spivery. “It’s a familiar feeling for me, it’s a feeling that I always want to experience.”
Spivery speaks of this third time in six years winning the SWAC championship. Spivery won the title twice in 2001 and 2004 when he was head coach at Alabama State. Spivery’s Hornets were also the 2000-01 regular season champions.
“I thought our team responded very well this year, we played good basketball in the tournament,” Spivery said. “When you do those two things (defense and rebounding) it gives your team a chance to win. We did the things necessary to build a sizable lead and we held on to that lead and the end results we are champions.”
Deforrest Riley-Smith put the Jag’s at a 10-point advantage, 29-19 causing Pine-Bluff to call timeout. The Lions junior forward Jarvis Gunter two-point shot wasn’t enough with the Jag’s having an 11-point lead with 12:02 remaining. Just when the Lion’s failure to execute offensively wasn’t bad enough, a nasty dunk by Peter Cipriano put the score at a 14-point difference. The Lion’s decided to wake up from their offensive sleep when junior guard V’Angelo Smith made two 3-pointers giving the score 48-31 with 6:26 left. The final three free throws put up by senior guard Jason Frierson didn’t help as the Lions lost their first tournament final appearance.
“I’m awfully proud of our guys,” said Arkansas Pine-Bluff coach Van Holt. “We came from nowhere to somewhere. No one expected us to be here, but ourselves.
Junior forward Timothy Hamilton finished with nine points, while Smith contributed 8 points and Williams and Byrd had seven each. Byrd also had eight rebounds.
“Southern played good defense, but the scoring opportunities we had, we missed,” Holt said. “I tried to forewarned the guys about scoring opportunities are premium and when you get them you got to make them.”
The Jaguars began with a two-point game until the Lions junior forward Williams Byrd layup tied the score at five in the first 3 minutes of the first half. Senior guard Alexander lay-up and 3-pointer moved the score within five points. Sophomore guard Larry Williams’ two-point shot brought the score within one-point moving the score to 12-11, and then the Jags held them to a 5-0 run with 6:39 remaining. Gunter put them back on the board with a lay-up, but Alexander’s two points put the Jag’s up by two with 3:52 left. Jag’s Cipriano tip-in two put the Jag’s in an 8-point lead going into halftime 25-17.
“This is probably one of the most proudest moments in my life to make it to the NCAA tournament,” Cipriano, SWAC tournament MVP said. “It was my dream to play basketball, the couple of years I was here before we never had get the chance, finally we have a chance.”
Senior forward Cipriano led the Jaguars with 21 points and nine rebounds, also including on the SWAC All-Tournament team, Alexander had 13 points and Riley-Smith contributed seven points and 12 rebounds.
“Peter has been very good for us all year and he had an outstanding game tonight,” Spivery said. “I’m glad for those two guys (Cipriano and Jerrid Campbell) in particular, they have suffered through a program over the last five years that really have not been really up to par.
“And I’m glad that we could come in and contribute to a certain degree of success this year for Peter and Jerrid Campbell to go out as winners and get a chance to go to the NCAA tournament.”
The Jaguars will be together for the selection show back in Baton Rouge to see where they will head to for the NCAA tournament.
