Superb Seniors

The last Saturday in February was special for men’s basketball. Along with being the last home game of the season, it was the last game in the F.G. Clark Activity Center for senior guards Tre Lynch, Cameron Monroe, Michael Harrel and senior big men Keith Davis and Frank Snow. The Jags were set to take on the Braves of Alcorn State University.
The first half started off fast for both teams. Southern shot an impressive 54 percent from the field. Alcorn construed a majority of its points from the free throw line, going 8-12 from the strike. ASU shot an abysmal 30 percent from the field. However, because of the easy points from the free throw line, the Braves were able to hang with the hot shooting supplied by SU. Going into the half, the score was tied 29 all.
“We started kind of slow, so I knew it was up to me to come in and lift the team up,” said Lynch. Scoring 10 points coming off of the bench in four minutes in the first half, Lynch would continued his scoring onslaught in the second half. Snow and sophomore guard Trelun Banks kicked off the scoring in the second half by notching the first seven points of the half; giving the Jaguars an edge early in the second half. Then, Lynch scored another eight points to give SU an 11-point lead halfway through the second period.
ASU would storm back in the waiting moments, after going nearly nine minutes without a made field goal attempt. However, back to back three pointers from the Braves’ Marquis Vance and George Thomas cut the lead to four, 49-45 with a little under seven minutes left to play. Lynch would go on another scoring streak, scoring four straight points to extend the lead to double digits. Twice ASU would diminish the lead to seven, but the Jags never wavered. As Snow halted the ASU comeback with an emphatic dunk, followed by two free throws from junior guard Adrian Rodgers.
The Braves would miss on two more field goal attempts, and Lynch would grab his tenth rebound of the game. Rodgers made the game unreachable by connecting on four free throws under the two-minute mark. Leantwan Luckett led ASU in scoring with 19 points and his backcourt teammate Vance was right behind him with 15 points. Alcorn lost the game with the phrase, “Live by the three, die by the three.” They did make twice as many three point attempts as two point attempts, but 32 of their 59 shots were three point attempts. All of the misses from the three-point line showed up in the stat column, as the Braves only made 30 percent of their shots.
SU would convert on something that cost them the game on Monday night; free throws. The Jags went 23-27 from the free throw line Saturday, shooting 85 percent from the strike.
“We shoot a lot of free throws in practice,” said Lynch. “At the end of the day its just about confidence and tonight we shot them with confidence and knocked them down.” Lynch finished.
Finishing the game with a double double, Lynch scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds. Davis added eight points and three rebounds; Monroe coupled that with an assist and a steal in 20 minutes, Snow had 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Harrel added a steal to his name in the stat sheet as well. The seniors combined for an all out team win 71-63 on senior night. SU will be set on pace for a two game road trip in Texas to finish the season against Prairie View and Texas Southern. Picking up these two wins could make Southern a dangerous team, and add a lot of momentum going into the SWAC tournament, which begins March 10.