Head coach Michael Grant forSouthern didn’t want his bench to leave the area in defense of his startingpoint guard who was sprawled out on the floor face down.
His next thought was he wantedto make sure Chris Alexander was fine after taking a punch to the left side ofhis face.
“Chris is a warrior,” Grant saidof the effort Alexander who made a come back in the second half with on and offheadaches and being able to slightly see out of his left eye — finished thegame as the highest scorer with 17 points.
“Chris our leader, he’s the glueto this team and he makes us go, and I was glad he was able to come back out inthe second half and give us a great effort.”
The Jaguars (10-10, 7-4Southwestern Athletic Conference) held out to the end for a 66-65 victory overJackson State University (9-14,5-6 SWAC) in the F.G. Clark Activity Center onMonday.
Both teams made huge off and onruns for the entire night.
From the start of the gameSouthern ran the pace by taking a 12 point lead, 16-4 at 11:22, then JacksonState made a 13 point run to get the first of three ties in the game at 24-24with a Hilton Tompkins three pointer at 2:34 to play in the half.
Then a little more than twominutes to play Alexander was on the floor from the punch- a right hook issuedby Tigers’ guard Charlie White.
Alexander was catching aninbound pass from midcourt and in attempt to defend the ball he was moving itaround with elbows out.
White fisted him and he fell tothe floor on his stomach while grabbing at his left eye. Medical aids ran to the court,Alexander stayed down for almost three minutes then he got up with trainers andwalked to the east side of the stadium.
“I was trying to come through asa good basketball move he took it (guarding ball with elbow) as if I was tryingto hit him,” Alexander said. “Assoon as I turned my back he hit me.”
In his absence Southern finishedthe half on top with 33-25.
