seven Straight: Jaguars secure second place in SWAC Conference

When you roll the dice, one is looking for the lucky number seven and nothing else.
The Southern University basketball team has done nothing but be on the roll and commit to those seven straight victories against their conference opponents and with tournament season around the corner, they have no choice but to commit.
Southern (15-7, 7-2) settles in second place of the Southwestern Athletic Conference after the core performance and their 75-64 victory against Alcorn State in F.G. Clark Activity Center.
Senior guards, Christopher Hyder and Adrian Rodgers as well as junior guard,,Trelun Banks led the pack as the most reliable players.
Rodgers led the concerto with 20 points, a single assist and steal but in 39 minutes of gameplay, Hyder committed to 16 points, 6 assists, four reboundss and 3 steals. Banks accosted for 12 points and an assist.
“That’s our role,” said Banks. “Those guys are seniors, I’m a junior and we’re all returning starters. Our teammates look to us to make big buckets, and we look for them to do their roles.”
Elated at the victory handled by Southern, head coach Roman Banks stated, “Rodgers went off for a period of time, and Trelun went off for a period of time. Then we started scoring inside, it opened things up and Hyder was able to finish it all at the foul line.”
The Jaguars were typical at finding the weak points of the defense when they had more steals than turnovers within the fast breaks.
“This was a huge win for us,” said head coach Banks, “We knew they like to get out and run and pass it back for the 3-pointer and if they miss, they can get the follow because they have some good rebounders. So we wanted to get back and make them get into a grind-it-out game.”
There were four ties inititated in this round-up and redshirt junior forward, Shawn Prudhomme’s layup was the icing on the cake towards the victory.
Hyder followed with a swift layup, Banks fed the alley-oop to Rodgers for a dunk and Banks sailed a 3-pointer to coast the momentum of the game 44-37 with 11 minutes left .
After the seven point-lead, junior forward Tony Nunn sailed a layup to accost for the nine-point lead.
With Rodgers at the wing, he sailed two more 3-pointers and another layup by Nunn made the lead stretch by 11.
With the rush of adrenaline near the ending of the game, Rodgers spoke on the tactics used by Southern.
“It was close, and then our run came,” said Rodgers, “It came at the right time, and then we started to get some better looks.”
After Tamarcio Wilson made a 3-pointer for Alcorn to shave the scoring, Rodgers scored seven straight points to elude the score 63-50 with 3:55 left.
“They kind of wore down,” said Hyder,”Late in the game, they slowed down and we kept going.”
After shooting 37 percent from the floor and 27.3 percent beyond the arc in the first half, the Jaguars shot 53.3 percent from the floor and 55.6 percent on 3-pointers in the second half.
The Jaguars will rest for a single game and will travel to Grambling State University in Ruston, Louisiana on February 6.